Losing Kagome
by jellolids
Summary: Kagome has gotten tired of being under appreciated. So, she decides to give up on InuYasha and date someone who DOES care. The lovely story of fate forcing InuYasha and Kagome together, with the aid of an infectious, sneaky, sarcastic mental voice...
1. Chapter 1

I don't own InuYasha. Nope. Not at all.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Hey, Sango, do you know where Kagome is?" InuYasha called from across the camp. Sango looked up from tending the fire.

"She left with Kirara about an hour ago. Why?"

"Damn it, where'd she go?" InuYasha yelled. Sango's eyebrows raised.

"Home. She mentioned something about having a date with her boyfriend tonight. She said she'd be back tomorrow or the day after." She explained calmly. InuYasha started, and promptly got into Sango's face.

"What do you mean her boyfriend?" Sango looked him squarely in the eyes.

"The guy she fell in love with because she got sick of waiting for you to love her back. Besides, he's from her own era." Sango glanced at him sideways. "Why did you think she's been so much calmer than usual when someone mentions Kikyo? She doesn't care anymore." InuYasha just stood there for a moment.

"You mean... she doesn't care about me anymore?" His hands clenched. "I've got to talk to her!"

Sango shrugged. "Suit yourself. Hey- that's one of Kouga's whirlwinds, isn't it?"

InuYasha glanced over to the whirlwind. "Yeah, that's Kouga. Great. Just what I needed." It didn't take long for Kouga to show up, demand to see Kagome, and be as furious as InuYasha about her sudden transfer of affection. Kouga started running again.

"Where are you going?" Sango called after him.

"To kill the stupid human who's trying to steal my woman!" He yelled back. InuYasha's eyes lit up, and Sango sighed.

"Right. I'l'll go set the others, and tell them we're heading back to the village." Just then, Kirara landed next to Sango. "Hey Kirara! Let's go find Shippo and Miroku! It seems we need to tell them we're heading back."

An hour later, they saw Kouga pulling himself out of the well. Clearly, he hadn't been able to get through. InuYasha laughed, and jumped in, and fell through the space-time Continuum to Kagome's era.

He barged into Kagome's room, where she was brushing her hair. She started. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, setting her brush down.

"I'm here to drag you back!" he yelled. She looked at him.

"While that's very sweet, I'm not going. I'm busy." she informed him coolly. InuYasha glared.

"You have a date. I know. You're not going." Kagome glared back.

"Just watch me." she hissed, and stalked out of the room. InuYasha followed at a distance. The doorbell rang, and Kagome opened the door to reveal a tallish young man with light brown hair. He smiled at Kagome.

"Ready to go?" Kagome smiled back.

"Yeah, lets get out of here before Grandfather and Sota show up." She said with a laugh, and the boy put his arm around her shoulders. InuYasha snapped, and began an attack. Kagome and the boy whirled. Kagome's eyes took on a dangerous look.

"Let me handle this, Hojo." She said calmly. "InuYasha, sit boy!" She yelled. InuYasha felt the power of the beads pull him down painfully. He struggled to get up and fight this Hojo guy who had stolen his Kagome. "Sit!" the beads took effect again, and again, he tried to get up. "SIT!" This time, InuYasha was slammed to the ground too hard to get up again. Through a haze of pain, he saw Kagome and Hgo leave, and heard Hojo ask who the guy was, and Kagome answer that it was a long story.

A while later, he went back through the well, to find a small crowd waiting for him. Shippo, Sango, Miroku, and Kaede were situated around the well with identical looks of "You are such an idiot" on their faces.

"Judging from the look on your face, Kagome used the beads." Miroku said with a touch of amusement. InuYasha glared at him, confirming the other's suspicions. Miroku grinned. "You know, this really IS your own fault." he pointed out.

"Yeah!" Shippo chimed in, "If you hadn't chosen Kikyo over Kagome so many times, maybe she wouldn't have fallen in love with this Hojo guy!"

"And you could have apologized a little more often!" Sango added, a slightly evil smile on her face as well. "That's what Kagome told me she likes best about him, he actually APOLOGIZES when he hurts her feelings!"

"Aye, the child _should_ love this boy. She is appreciated and cherished, and is not taking second place to my dead sister!" Kaede agreed firmly.

InuYasha was furious. "Are you saying this is all MY fault?" he growled. The others looked at each other, shrugged and answered in unison.

"More or less." InuYasha stormed off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A friend of mine and I came up with this concept when we were talking on MSN. I think that Kagome-Hojo is an unlikely pairing, and not even one I like, (sorry, but I'm a bit of a Kagome-InuYasha fan myself) but I just imagined how hilarious it would be off Kagome basically informed the demon and powerful half-demon guys who like her, "Sorry, I'm ditching you guys for your inconstancy and going to the guy who actually trusts and appreciates me!" It just made me laugh.

The original plan was for this story to end here, leaving everyone laughing. However, after posting this on DeviantArt, I got talked into making it into a full-scale novel-type-thingy, with a LOT more chapters….


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own InuYasha. I might try to claim I did, but I can't draw, so I can't convincingly fake it….

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So what do you think?" Sango asked Miroku that night, once InuYasha had left Kaede's house to sulk. "Is Kagome really in love with this Hojo person?" Miroku shook his head.

"No, I don't think so." Sango smiled wryly.

"I don't think so either. She still worries about InuYasha a lot, even though she tries not to let on. Not to mention how she avoids most of the questions I ask her about Hojo. She talks about how considerate he is, but when I ask her if she's going to tell him about the well, she finds something to distract herself." Miroku laughed.

"Yes, I was getting that impression. Do you think she realizes what she's doing?"

Sango shook her head. "Not really. She honestly believes she loves him."

"I think it's something she's doing to protect herself. She's finding a way to numb the pain of taking second place to Kikyo." Miroku said pensively. Sango nodded slowly.

"She's decided that if InuYasha loves someone else, so should she. If she loves someone else, the way he always puts Kikyo ahead of her can't hurt her anymore. Yes... I can see that."

"There's more to it than that," Miroku said thinking out loud. "If Kagome doesn't love InuYasha, then he doesn't have to love her. He doesn't have to protect her anymore."

"And Naraku can't use her to get at him, because they're not together." Sango finished, slightly awed at the perfection of this idea. She traded amused glances with Miroku.

"So," Miroku said brightly "Want to bet on how long it lasts?" Sango laughed.

"Until the next time something attacks Kagome. If not earlier. InuYasha isn't really patient, and he hates sharing Kagome with the competition." Miroku chuckled.

"No arguments there. Just look at how he gets when Kouga's around her. Which makes me wonder, why didn't Kagome go to Kouga, instead of Hojo?"

"I think it's because deep down, she didn't want to see InuYasha and Kouga fight." Sango explained. "And also, because Kouga irritates her. He has a habit of treating her like his property, and that makes her mad. Hojo was a safer choice all around."

"That's true. And InuYasha doesn't know Hojo, and it's not very likely that Kagome's going to introduce them."

"Which means InuYasha is going to be left in the dark about who she's seeing and how he treats her. _That's_ not going to make him very happy." Sango and Miroku rolled their eyes, sharing the knowledge that InuYasha was going to be unbearable for the next few days.

Kagome lay relaxed on her bed, feeling clean and comfortable for the first time in a while. Her date had been fun, but something was nagging at her. It was almost as if there was something missing. _Stop that. _She told herself. _It's not like you _are _missing anything. You have great friends, quite possibly the nicest, most agreeable guy for a boyfriend... _She rolled over, so that her chin was resting on her fists. That was it. Hojo. He was wonderful, sweet, funny, and would do anything for her, but something felt... wrong. Out of place. She could not explain it. It was almost as if he was _too _perfect. She shook herself to stop her train of thought. She must be imagining things. She was probably just tired from fighting demons in the feudal era. A good night's sleep in a bed would fix that. With a sigh, she got under her covers, and tried to fall asleep.

Her plan did not work very well. For a long time, she could not get to sleep, and when she finally did, her dreams were nightmares that woke her almost every hour. Eventually, around dawn, everything calmed, and she settled into a deep sleep with a mumbled "Thank you".

Shippo woke up a little before dawn. Someone was moving around the house. He cracked open an eye, and saw InuYasha leaving. Quietly, Shippo got up and followed. InuYasha walked to the woods, and Shippo stealthily hid behind buildings, bushes, and other convenient hiding places. He was relieved once they crossed the tree line; it was much easier to hide in the forest. Shippo froze behind a tree trunk as InuYasha looked back over his shoulder. He looked around for a moment, then shrugged and walked a path that Shippo recognized. A few minutes later, InuYasha stood next to the dry well that lead to Kagome's time, and stared into the well's depths with one hand resting on its weathered wood. He looked over his shoulder again, and Shippo darted behind another tree. InuYasha turned back to his contemplation of the well. After a moment, he jumped into it. Shippo stared. Why was InuYasha going after Kagome so soon after she had used the beads?

InuYasha got out of the well, and quietly walked to the window of Kagome's room. As usual, it was unlatched. He started to open it, like he always did, but then he paused. If Kagome was awake, he was not certain he wanted to talk to her. He would never know until he looked. Besides, it was still before dawn. There was no way she would be awake. He slid the window open, mostly muting the scraping sound of the frame on the window sill, and glanced around. Kagome was tossing and turning in her sleep. Occasionally, she whimpered slightly. InuYasha climbed into the room, and sat down next to her bed. The first glimmerings of dawn light followed him. Kagome shifted wildly, and flung her hand over the side of her bed, 

to hang there limply. He reached out, took her hand, and laid it next to her cheek. She shifted again, more slowly, as if she was still nervous, but calming. InuYasha turned away from her.

"Just relax will ya? I'm not going anywhere, and as long as I'm here, I'm not going to let anything hurt you!" Kagome smiled in her sleep.

"Thank you." She murmured, and settled.


	3. Chapter 3

I'd like to thank CrystalBlueWolf for pointing out the erm…. Flaw in my story. Turns out, I accidentally uploaded chapter three of "A Long Awaited Meeting" instead of chapter three of "Losing Kagome". I feel incredibly stupid right now…..

As for the other reviews…..

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Thanks! I'm glad you like it! I'm rather fond of the voice myself. So much fun to write…..

g2fan: Thank you! And as for a sequel, well, umm, my friend Roze010 and I have thought about a sequel, and even come up with a plot line of sorts, but I've never gotten around to writing it…. Maybe sometime this year……

I still don't own InuYasha. I doubt I'll own it tomorrow either, unless something REALLY freaky happens….

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kagome got very little sleep over the next three days she was at home. She could not get even into a light sleep for hours after she first closed her eyes, and when she finally did, her sleep was fretful. The only hours she slept peacefully were those just after dawn, until a little before she awoke by rolling off her bed, and hitting the floor. Her friends were concerned.

"Kagome, are you feeling ok? You look sick!" One of her friends asked, concerned, and the others nodded.

"Yeah, maybe you should go home and sleep!"

"You don't want to get put back in the hospital!" This was repeated for days, not only by her friends, but by Hojo.

"You've got to get some sleep, Kagome. You're studying too much!" He told her fondly, brushing some hair out of her eyes. "I don't want to have to talk your grandfather into letting me see you in the hospital." She smiled up at him with tired eyes.

"I'm trying. I just can't." She looked away. _It's funny, _she thought, _I never have trouble sleeping when I'm in the feudal era. Generally, I don't have problems here either. I just feel... restless. Maybe if I go back and do something, it'll stop? That should work. I'll go back after the math test, and stay for a while._ She decided, _and this time, _I_ will be the one to decide what I've come down with. Not Grandpa!_

"Kagome?" Hojo's voice called her away from her planning. Kagome shook her head.

"Sorry! I must have drifted off. What were you saying?" Hojo chuckled.

"I was saying that you're losing focus easily. You really need to sleep before the math test." Kagome rested her head on his shoulder.

"I know, and I'm trying!" She said weakly.

"Try to do better. You really need to stay healthy." Hojo told her as he dropped her off at the shrine. She smiled and waved goodbye. After he left, her shoulders slumped, and she decided to try to go take a nap.

InuYasha was being interrogated.

"Where have you been every morning?" Miroku asked, sounding slightly annoyed "Ever since Kagome left, you've been gone for the first two hours after dawn. What's going on?" InuYasha glared.

"I haven't been doing anything!" He snarled. Miroku's eyebrows raised. InuYasha stalked out of the house. Miroku glanced at Sango.

"I wonder what he's been up to..." he murmured. Sango shrugged.

"I know." Shippo said soberly from his position on the floor next to Kirara. Sango and Miroku turned to look at him. "I followed him the first night." he continued. "He's been going to the well every morning around dawn. He goes through, and comes back after a few hours."

"He's going through, but he isn't bringing Kagome back?" Sango asked, slightly stunned. "What is he doing, watching her sleep?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. He does that while she's here, too." Miroku pointed out. Shippo nodded.

"It's kind of scary. I've woken up in the middle of the night, and I see InuYasha, just staring at me and Kagome!" He shivered. "Believe me, that is CREEPY!"

Sango and Miroku agreed. Who wouldn't get the chills if they woke up to InuYasha staring at them?


	4. Chapter 4

Still not the owner of InuYasha. Still wishing I was.

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next day, Kagome got a pleasant surprise in her gym class. They were studying archery. Everyone except Kagome stared in stunned dismay at their bows, and held them upside down, and made various other basic mistakes. Kagome stared in stunned amazement as it slowly came to her just how much her spirit must have remembered the bow from her past life. Her friends were some of the ones having the most trouble with them.

"You're holding it upside down!" She laughed, and tried to help them out. Almost all of them resisted claiming that Kagome was the only one holding the bow that way, so clearly she must be wrong. Kagome shrugged, and was pleased to see their stunned surprise when the gym teacher yelled at them for holding their bows incorrectly. They turned to stare at her.

"How did you know how to hold a bow?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, you never told us you knew anything about this sort of thing!"

"Come on, Kagome, tell us!" Kagome shrugged.

"I don't know, I just figured that this looked right." She said hesitantly. There was no way she was going to say _"Oh, it's because I'm the reincarnation of this priestess named Kikyo, who was one of the greatest archers ever. She's killed demons with one arrow from half a mile away, and so have I."_ Something told her that would not go over too well.

"Alright people! Make lines in front of the targets! Higurashi- you start this one!" The gym teacher bellowed, and continued calling people from the crowd of students to head up the lines. Kagome supposed that these were the students who had guessed correctly how to hold their bows. She took her place at the head of a line. Hojo took the place behind her, and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"You'll do fine. No body will be able to hit the target, so you shouldn't worry about it." He told her with a smile. Kagome laughed, trying not to let on that she was not worried a bit about not hitting the target. She knew she was going to hit the target, no trouble at all. No, she was a little more concerned about turning the target into a pile of dust, like her arrows in the feudal era did to demons. And that people might notice a blaze of light surrounding the arrow. She must be looking a little green.

"Yeah, I hope so. I'm more worried about the math test next hour." She half lied. She _was_ worried about the test, after all. It just was not the thing she was the _most_ worried about. Hojo laughed.

"You're always worried about school!" he told her, "Relax! Maybe that's why you're always getting sick!" Kagome smiled slightly.

_You have no idea..._ she thought wryly. She had only been sick once in over a year. Hojo's concern was misplaced, but she was not about to let him discover that little detail. "You might be right." She answered instead.

"Hojo! Higurashi! Pay attention!" The teacher barked, and they both jumped. Kagome spent a bored five minutes listening to the teacher explain basic archery. Finally, the moment of truth arrived. Kagome bit her lip as she pulled back her bow string.

_Please don't look too weird, please don't look too weird!_ She begged the arrow, and shot. It looked like all the other arrows, except that hers hit the bullseye. Her classmates were lucky if they hit the target. Most did not. Those who noticed what she had managed stared at her in silent, stunned amazement. The teacher was also thunderstruck.

"Higurashi! Again!" He growled, obviously anticipating failure this try.

The same thing happened with the second arrow.

And the third.

The fourth arrow finally convinced the teacher that Kagome was not just extremely lucky. At that point everyone in the class was staring at Kagome, who was feeling extremely self-conscious, with slack jaws. All Kagome wanted was to take her math test, and go hide for about a decade in the feudal era.

"Ba-back of the line, Higurashi!" The teacher yelled. Kagome was happy to oblige.

After gym, her friends started interrogating her.

"Oh my God, Kagome! How did you do that?"

"Have you done this before?"

"Can you show ME how to do that?" Kagome did not know what to say.

"I don't know how I did it. I just did." She finally said after a long silence. It was a lame answer, she knew, but it was better than nothing. Her friends accepted it.

"Wow, that was amazing!"

"Yeah, why were you worried? You were fantastic!"

"You'll get the best grades in the class for sure!" Kagome smiled wanly.

"Thanks. Now, let's get to math. That test is gonna kill..."

She was right. The math test definitely killed them all, except for one of Kagome's friends. She quickly found out that her opinion of the simplicity of the test was not shared, and shut up. After school, Kagome went out with her friends, and told them the story that she had fabricated to explain her next trip.

"I won't be at school for a while." She said quietly.

"What?"

"Why not?"

"You know you can't miss much more school, you're already having trouble keeping up!" They clamored. Kagome nodded.

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to a hospital, I can't remember which one, to get some blood work done. They think maybe there's something wrong with it, and that's why I'm getting sick all the time." She smiled to herself. This story was brilliant. She could say she had anemia or something when she got back, and from then on out, anemia would be a perfectly good excuse for when she was gone. No more stupid diseases that Grandpa had come up with that made no sense! All her friends were immediately sympathetic.

"Oh, no!"

"Kagome, are you feeling bad again?"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want anybody to get worried. I'll be fine, but I've been feeling a little tired, you know? So they're worried that there's something wrong with my blood. That's all. It's probably nothing." She said calmly.

"So, when are you going to tell Hojo?" one of her friends asked.

"Yeah, are you going to let him visit you?"

"You should, he'll be really worried if you don't!"

"I'm going to tell him tonight. We're going out. And no, I'm not. I don't want anyone to see me when I'm in the hospital. I always look pathetic, and vaguely disturbing."

"Are you sure?" they all asked together.

"Yes." _Of course, I'm sure. No way do I want Hojo to find out that I've never been in a hospital, and that I've really been with InuYasha..._


	5. Chapter 5

If you guessed that I still didn't own InuYasha, you're correct!

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Early the next morning, Kagome packed her bag, and headed out back for the well with her mother, brother, and grandfather.

"Come home soon, dear." Her mother called.

"Yeah, see if you can talk InuYasha into coming with you!" Sota added eagerly. Kagome smiled slightly.

"That might not be a good idea. The last time he came, he didn't react well to Hojo..." Kagome trailed off. Sota winced slightly. He had seen InuYasha get the sit command after he tried to attack Hojo.

"Oh, yeah. Maaybe not..." Kagome laughed.

"I'll tell him you said hello." And she jumped into the well.

InuYasha was once again being treated to interrogation, this time from Kaede.

"Why do ye seem so unsettled, InuYasha?" She asked, hiding a small smile. He glared at her.

"I'm not unsettled, you old hag!" He snapped. Kaede's eyebrows raised.

"Oh, really? Then why be ye so fidgety?" She asked gesturing at the way his claws were drumming on his knee. He glanced down, glared at his fingers, then at Kaede.

"I just want to get going, that's all. Dammit, why is Kagome taking so long?" He snarled.

"Kagome had a test yesterday." Shippo said as he entered the house. "And she wanted to spend so time with Hojo. Ouch!" He yelled as InuYasha slammed his fist on his head. "Hey, what was that for? All I said was that Kagome had a test, and wanted to spend some time with her boyfriend! Ahh!" This time he managed to dodge InuYasha's fist.

"Shut up you stupid fox!" InuYasha growled. Shippo gulped.

"Uh, right! Well, Kagome should be home sometime today! Hey, I'll go wait for her by the well with Kirara!" And he ran. Fast. InuYasha glared after him for a long time, then settled down, closing his eyes, and resuming the drumming of his fingers. Kaede watched him for a moment.

"InuYasha, is the thought of Kagome seeing someone else setting you out of sorts?" She asked slowly, ready to gauge his reaction. InuYasha's eyes were open in a second, glaring once again.

"What are you talking about, you old hag? If Kagome wants to see some stupid human, that's her business. Why should that bother me?" He said, furious. He stalked out the door, leaving Kaede behind him, shaking her head.

_When will InuYasha admit that he despises the idea of Kagome being with anyone except him?_ She asked herself, as her lips twitched into a smile.

The second Kagome got through the well, Shippo pounced on her.

"Hey Kagome! We've missed you!" He said eagerly, and Kirara meowed her agreement. Kagome laughed.

"It's good to see you too! How is In-" she broke off, and shook herself. "How is everyone?" Shippo stared.

_Was she about to say InuYasha?_ He wondered, slightly less than surprised. He did not think Kagome really liked Hojo any more than Sango and Miroku did. He acted like he had not heard her slip up.

"Everyone's fine. We've dealt with a few demons for Kaede, but that's all. There hasn't been too much trouble." He assured her. "Sango wants to talk to you, so I guess you should go see her-"

"Sango's here now." Sango called from behind them. "Hello Kagome! It's good to see you. How was everything at home?"

"Fine. The math test was a killer." Sango laughed.

"That's what you always say. So, how was your date?" Sango's eyes locked on Kagome's face, following the flickers of emotions on it. Kagome looked slightly startled, then vaguely uneasy, as though she did not want to talk about this, before she masked her face with a look of happiness.

"It was great... once I got rid of InuYasha. I still don't get why he tried to stop me. It's like he thought he owned me, or something."

"He _is_ really protective of you." Sango reminded her. "He probably just didn't like it because he doesn't know Hojo." Then Sango saw the expression she had been expecting. For a split second, Kagome looked elated, but it immediately changed to a more pensive look.

"Maybe that's it." Kagome agreed, and sighed slightly.

"You should go talk to him. He really doesn't like this." Sango encouraged, knowing Kagome wanted to talk to InuYasha, but was not certain if that was alright. Kagome smiled.

"Yeah. I probably should." She started walking towards the village, and InuYasha.

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ok. I know this section is insanely short, and that some people really don't like that, but oh well. I thought that I had a decent ending at that point.


	6. Chapter 6

Guess what? InuYasha still isn't mine! Isn't that surprising?

- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -

Kagome met Kaede before she reached the village, and she told Kagome that InuYasha had gone to the tree to sulk. So, she turned around, and began to walk to the tree, thinking about everything that had happened under the tree. Over fifty years ago, Kikyo had bound InuYasha to it because of Naraku. She had fought her first demon, Mistress Centipede, by it.

_That was the first time InuYasha protected me. He never admitted it, but he did. _She smiled wryly. _Of course, he did try to kill me immediately afterwards, so maybe it doesn't count..._ She could just see the top of the tree, slightly higher than the others, as she thought of the most important thing that had happened by the tree.

She had met InuYasha there, and that was how everything had begun. The tree was right in front of her now, and she looked up at its emerald green leaves, then bowed her head, other memories coming to her. This was near where InuYasha had promised to kill Naraku for Kikyo, and where he had tried to kill her. This was where InuYasha had thought she was Kikyo, and laughed when she could not handle Mistress Centipede. This was where, in her own time, she had sat, desperate for a link to InuYasha, when he had chosen Kikyo. Pain stabbed through her heart at the last thought.

_Why does this hurt?_ She wondered, resting her hand on the trunk of the tree to steady herself, _This shouldn't hurt anymore! I don't love him! I love Hojo! This can't hurt me anymore!_ She rested the side of her head against the rough bark of the tree, trying to compose herself, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she moved away from the tree. _It was just the leftovers of the way I felt before. It wasn't that it actually hurt me now, it was just because I'm so used to feeling pain when I think of InuYasha being with Kikyo._ She assured herself, and walked around the tree.

InuYasha was sitting under the tree, almost exactly under where Kikyo had bound him. He looked up when he heard Kagome approach, then scowled and turned his back to her.

"What do you want?" He asked darkly as Kagome sat down next to him.

"I just want to talk." She said softly.

"About what?" His voice was low, and annoyed sounding.

"About why you tried to attack my boyfriend, maybe?" Kagome said dryly. He stood up abruptly.

"I don't like him." He said flatly. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"You don't even know him. He's really nice, a lot like Akitoki-" Kagome started

"Yeah, well, he's obviously related to him. What do I care?" InuYasha interrupted snarling slightly. Kagome was starting to get annoyed.

"I don't know. Apparently you do, or you wouldn't have tried to use Tetsuaiga on him when you attacked!" She said exasperated. InuYasha froze, then whirled to face her, his hands balled into fists.

"I did NOT use Tetsuaiga! I don't need it to beat a pathetic human!" He yelled.

"I saw you draw it! It's a little hard to miss!" She yelled back, temper rising.

"Yeah, right! Anyway, why do you even care about him? He doesn't DO anything!" InuYasha asked, still yelling, and shaking with rage.

"I don't know!" Kagome yelled, tears of fury streaming down her face, "Maybe it's because he's always there for me, he would never hurt me, he doesn't love someone else, and HE DOESN'T ALWAYS GO CHASING OFF AFTER MY SOUL'S PREVIOUS INCARNATION!!" her voice rose with each reason, until she was almost screaming. InuYasha's jaw dropped.

"Wha-" he started, but Kagome talked over him through clenched teeth.

"I love him because he loves me, Kagome, and doesn't care about who I was before!" She was crying hard now, and turned her back on InuYasha, who was staring at her.

"Kagome-" He started hesitantly.

"INUYASHA, SIT BOY!" She yelled, and ran as the beads yanked him to the ground.

InuYasha picked himself off the ground, wincing slightly.

"Damn it, Kagome." He muttered, staring after her. He almost followed her, but something stopped him.

"_He would never hurt me"_ Her words echoed in his head. He was shaking with rage. When had he ever hurt her? He _protected _her! He would never hurt Kagome!

_Oh, really? What about all those times she saw you with Kikyo?_ A little voice inside his head pointed out. He shook his head. No. They did not matter. Kagome had said it was alright, every time.

_Do you honestly believe that?_ The voice asked again, determined to make him feel guilty. He shook his head, trying to dislodge it. _You know it hurt her. Why do you think she always went home right afterwards? She wanted to get away from you. She didn't want you to see her. _The 

voice went on viciously. _Why do YOU care if she has a boyfriend in her era? You don't love her, after all. Kikyo is the most important thing to you. She has been since the day you met her. _InuYasha clenched his teeth, his hands were balled into fists.

"That's not-" he started, but the voice cut him off. _Every time Kikyo is in trouble, you run off to help. Admit it- if it came down to a choice between Kagome and Kikyo, you would chose Kikyo. You want what she wants- to die with her. To be with her forever. _

"No." He said slowly, "I don't..."

_Then what do you want? To live with her body of bone, grave soil, and stolen souls? The voice laughed derisively. You don't want that. You would feel guilty about it, eventually. You want to die in her arms, like you think you should have, fifty years ago._

"No, it's not!" He snarled.

_Really? Then why do you act like it?_ The voice asked, a little too sweetly. And this time, InuYasha did not have an answer for it.

Back in Kagome's era, a boy was staring into a well, about fifteen minutes after Kagome had left. He could see the bottom, and thought he could something glimmering there. He shivered. He was certain he had seen his girlfriend go in here with her family, and then jump into the well. Hojo had not seen Kagome since. He made a decision: he was going to find out what was going on. Tentatively, he set a hand on the weathered wood of the well, jumped in, met a blaze of colored light, and fell through stars.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hojo goes down the well…. The plot thickens!


	7. Chapter 7

Still don't own InuYasha. Nope.

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -

Shippo and Kirara were sitting by the well, hoping that Kagome and InuYasha's conversation was going well, when they heard something hit the base of the well with a thump.  
"What the-" a voice called from the bottom. Shippo and Kirara looked at each other. Who was in the well? It could not be Kagome; they would have seen her. There was rustling as someone climbed out of it, and Shippo's jaw droppeed. The boy who had just climbed out of the well looked just like Akitoki, with shorter hair. That must mean...  
"Hey," The boy said, looking around, eyes going wide. "Ummmmm... where are we?"  
Shippo started sweating. He did not think it would be a good if Hojo found Kagome too soon after she had argued with InuYasha.  
"Outside the village" He said slowly. Hojo looked confused.  
"Ummmm... is there a shrine run by the Higurashi family nearby?" He asked hopefully.  
"Not... exactly..." Shippo said, fidgeting nervously. WhatdoIdo?WhatdoIdo?WhatdoIdo? His mind was screaming. Kirara jumped onto his shoulder, and Hojo jumped. Then he noticed the differences between Kirara and a normal cat. His eyes widened, and he backed away. Shippo wanted to laugh. Kagome wasn't kidding when she said that people would be afraid of InuYasha if he didn't keep his dog ears hidden in her time! Just look at how he's staring at Kirara! And she's not even that scary right now!  
"She won't hurt you. Not unless you try to hurt us or our friends. Kirara is a nice demon!" Shippo reassured him.  
"De-demon?" Hojo sounded slightly histerical.  
"INUYASHA, SIT BOY!" Kagome's voice yelled, just barely audible from a ways away. Shippo winced at the dull thud he heard. That didn't sound like it was going too well... Hojo turned towards the sound of Kagome's voice.  
"Kagome?" He murmured, a bit confused. Shippo wanted to bang his head against a tree. Footsteps sounded.  
"Kirara? Shippo?" It was Sango. She had also heard the echo of Kagome's command, and came into the clearing. She froze when she saw Hojo. Oh shit... She thought, _THIS is not going to be very helpful..._ Hojo turned to stare at her. She smiled slightly.

"Who are you?" She asked, certain she already knew the answer. Her mind was racing, trying to think of ways to keep Hojo and InuYasha appart.

"My name is Hojo. I'm looking for someone..." He said, confusion and discomfort easy to discern from his voice.

"Kagome?" She asked coolly, a slightly evil idea forming in her mind. Hojo looked up in surprise.

"Yeah, you know her?" He asked eagerly. Sango smiled.

"Kagome is my best friend. She's told me about you." Hojo perked up. Sango had to resist the urge to gag. He was acting like a puppy.

"Really?" he asked eagerly. Sango hoped her smile looked less fake than it actually was.

_Mental comparison: InuYasha looks like a dog, but other than when he's following a scent, he acts like a human. Hojo looks nothing like a dog, but the minute I say Kagome talked about him, he starts acting like a puppy. Ok. What's with Kagome and boys with dog traits? _

"Yeah, she has. She was heading to the village a little while ago..." _And I'm not going to mention the fact that she turned around and started heading for the tree a while ago... _

"What are we waiting for? Let's go." Hojo said, clearly wanting to see Kagome. Behind his back, Sango shook her head. _If you were a puppy you would be pulling at your leash right now... _

Shippo stared at Hojo in stunned amazement. _The only times I've ever seen anyone act more like a dog is when InuYasha is following a scent on the day before a new moon..._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -

This part is incredibly short, I know, but I liked leaving it off where it was.

I'm also going to be brutally honest, and say that in general, when you have really short chapters like this, it meant that I wanted to get something up, and didn't have a clue what to do next…


	8. Chapter 8

I would once again like to point out that I do not own InuYasha.

-- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kagome did not really feel like going to the well, where she knew Shippo would be waiting, after her argument with InuYasha. She was still crying tears of frustration, and she would rather not have someone try to sympathize. Instead, she went to go sit by the river. She figured watching the water might calm her down, and there would be a ready supply of water to wash her face, once she stopped crying. She sat down on the bank, and pulled her knees to her chest, staring out at the running water. She let her mind drift to those first few days with InuYasha, when he still hated her for being Kikyo's reincarnation. A slight smile twitched at her lips.

_He always tried to do something stupid to get the jewel from me. Or the jewel shards. It never worked, thanks to the beads. I love those beads. I can actually make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid. I wish he wouldn't yell at me for it. I guess I understand why, but I'm trying to keep him from doing something he'd regret later!_ With a sigh, Kagome rested her chin on her knees. That was InuYasha for you. No gratitude, and a refusal to admit he might be about to do something stupid. She had stopped crying by now, and was trying to ensure that she did not sit InuYasha about seventy times when she saw him again.

_He's a jerk! I don't know why I like him so much. I mean, all he ever does is make fun of me, and order me around!_ She told herself. Then her eyes widened. _ What do I mean 'like'? I don't like him anymore! I like Hojo! _ She nearly screamed at herself

_Really? _ A nasty little voice in the back of her mind said sweetly, _Then why do you have to keep reminding yourself of that?_

"Because I'm so used to being in love with InuYasha, that I just say it in the present tense. And because we're still friends..." Kagome muttered quietly, hoping to get the voice to shut up.

_About that, if he's such a jerk, why are you still friends with him? Why stay anywhere near him at all? _ The voice continued in the fashion that all evil voices in the back of people's minds do.

"Because he isn't always a jerk. When he isn't, he's really nice. He cares about me-"  
Kagome tried to explain herself, but was cut off.

_That's funny. Whenever you try to justify being with Hojo, you never seem to remember the times he's a decent person. Why do you suppose that is, hmmm?_ Kagome was finding herself hating this voice more every second.

"I don't know! Maybe because they're so incredibly rare..."

_Oh really? And just how many times has he gone out of his way to save you from whatever demon you were caught by? _

"Ummm, well... That's because..."

_And how many times has he gotten angry with you, because you didn't listen to him and get out of danger? _

"Wouldn't that be a point for how much of a jerk he is?" Kagome asked, feeling most of her arguments sliding through her fingers.

_And how many times has he nearly gotten himself killed because he gave you some part of his armor? _

"Uh, well..."

_And how often is he there for you when you really need someone?_

"What are you doing, trying to make me feel like a horrible person, so I'll get a self-esteem coordinator?" Kagome asked the voice. She was feeling guilty, as though she had been caught in a lie. She did not appreciate it.

The voice was silent for a moment. _ No. I'm just here to make you realize that you're acting like a child who has been told she has to share. _It said finally, adding insult to injury.

"Yeah, well, you're doing a very good job of it." Kagome muttered darkly. At this point, Kagome was tempted to bash her head on a rock if it would just get the voice to shut up.

_Thank you. And by the way, bashing your head on a rock won't do any good. You'll only get a headache. I'd just be back once you regained consciousness. _ The voice sounded smug. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." She said flatly, running through plans in her head to get rid of this stupid voice.

_Don't mention it. By the way, none of those plans of yours will work. I won't go away until you do what I tell you to, or you beat my arguments. _ The voice said cheerfully. Kagome started to rub her temples.

"You know, there isn't really enough room in my head for anyone but me."

_That's what you think. There's lots of space in here! You should use some more of your brain! The voice sighed. But then, you _are _Kikyo, and she never used that much of her brain either... _

"I am NOT Kikyo." Kagome said flatly.

_  
Ohhhh, yes you are. Same soul, same brain capacity, same facial structure... _the voice trailed off. Kagome pounced on this break. The voice had touched a nerve.

"I don't act like Kikyo." She hissed. "I can't use my abilities as a miko unless I'm in such serious danger it isn't funny, I don't want InuYasha to go to Hell with me, and INUYASHA DOESN'T LOVE ME!" She started in a low whisper, and was almost yelling by the time she finished. In fact, the only reason she was not, was because she realized just how bad it would look to a passerby if she was yelling to absolutely no one that someone did not love her.

_That's somewhat true... I suppose. About not acting like Kikyo, and not wanting to go to Hell to InuYasha. The rest... that's mostly because you've never bothered to find out. _

"What do you mean I've never bothered to find out?"

_Think about it. You've never trained your abilities. How did you expect to use them, hmmmm? The only reason you can do as much as you do is because you have so much power. And you never bothered to ask InuYasha how he felt about you. _ Kagome laughed bitterly.

"I don't really need to. He loves Kikyo, not me. Besides, do you honestly think he would tell me the truth?" The voice snorted.

_Probably not. I hadn't thought it was possible before I met him, but InuYasha's dumber than you are! _ Kagome was not sure if that was a compliment, or an insult. The she stood up abruptly.

"I think I'm going to ignore you now." Kagome said calmly, and started walking to the village, still avoiding the well. The voice snickered.

_Go ahead and try. It's amusing. Oh, I'd recommend getting your hands on a bow. Fast. _

"Wha-" Kagome asked, slightly confused.

_Just find a bow. _ The voice said in an exasperated tone. _ You'll understand later. _

"Whatever." She said, and started to walk faster, hoping that her speed would dislodge the extra person in her head.

Sango's fingers had been inching towards hirakosu for the past five minutes, wanting to take it and throw it at Hojo.

_Does this guy ever shut_ up_?_ She asked herself, as she was treated to random chatter about how important maintaining health was. Shippo and Kirara looked just as disgusted, especially Shippo. Hojo had informed him that his candy loving habits were not very good for his teeth, and that he would talk to Kagome about cutting off his supply of lollipops. Shippo's explanation of "I'm a demon, I don't need to worry about it." had only made him laugh and say

"You'll stop thinking that, once you get a cavity." Shippo's eye was twitching. Sango recognized danger signs. She would not be surprised if Hojo found himself blasted by fox fire before he left. When she was certain Hojo was too absorbed in his good health speech to notice, she leaned over, and whispered in his ear.

"Shippo, take Kirara, and go find Kagome. Tell her I need to talk to her. Now."

"Should I mention Hojo?" He whispered back. She shook her head.

"No. Let's surprise her." Shippo nodded, and headed back to the well to catch Kagome's scent.

Sango suffered a few more minutes before she saw Kaede heading for them. She looked worried.

"Kaede, is something wrong?" Sango called, and Kaede nodded briskly.

"Aye. Some spider demons have come to the village. They have some of the children, so Miroku cannot use his wind tunnel. I am looking for the rest of ye. Where are Kagome and-"

"I don't know." Sango cut her off quickly, shaking her head and pointing surreptitiously at Hojo. "Shippo's out looking for her. He'll bring her to the village. I'll see what I can do to help." She turned to Hojo. "I'm sorry, I have to go help Miroku handle this. You should probably keep your distance..." Hojo shook his head.

"It probably won't be that bad. Besides, I'm interested." Hojo explained with a smile. Sango just barely managed to contain her stunned amazement.

_How can he be so... so stupid ! She asked herself. _

"Trust me... it will be." And she ran towards the village, hoping she got there in time to help.


	9. Chapter 9

It occurs to me that I should mention that I don't own any of these characters. A brilliant manga writer who's name escapes me does. So don't give me credit for them, and don't try to sue me!

- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -

Sango ran straight for the village, with Hojo close on her heals, pulling her hair back as she ran, and loosened hirakosu's strap so she could throw it at a moment's notice. She heard screaming ahead of her.

_Hold on, Miroku!_ She thought, running faster, and wishing that she had Kirara, _Stay alive until I get there!_ Hojo was yelling something at her.

"What?" She called back, only paying half attention. The rest of her mind was on getting to Miroku.

"I said why is that lady so worried about a couple of spiders?" Hojo said, sounding annoyed. "I mean, they're just bugs!" Sango nearly stopped in her tracks.

"They're not bugs, they're demons. You know, big, vicious, power creatures who in this case would love to eat us all?" Sango said flatly as she continued to run. Hojo laughed.

"Awww, come on, everyone knows demons don't really exist!" Sango turned to face him, performing the impressive feat of running backwards without tripping over anything. Not the first time, she thanked the gods for her training.

"Then enlighten me: How did an entire village make their living as demon slayers?" She asked. Hojo rolled his eyes.

"Where did you hear _that_? Someone was probably just making it up." Sango glared, still running, now resisting the urge to use hirakosu on this idiot. Only the fact that he was Kagome's boyfriend was keeping him safe. She hoped he realized that.

"No one made it up." She said flatly. "That village was my home. I am the last of the demon slayers." Hojo stared at her for a moment, then just nodded with a blank look.

_He probably thinks I'm crazy... _

_She would be a good candidate for that new asylum... _

Then Sango bumped into someone, and would have fallen over, if he had not caught her.

"Sango! It's about time you got here! I could use a little help..." Miroku said, relieved, as he set her back on her feet. Sango nodded briskly, and held her hirakosu, ready to throw. She heard the movement of many jointed legs behind her. The demons had closed in around them.

"HIRAKOSU!" She yelled, and threw it with all her might. It flew, taking the front legs out from under nearly all the demons, who struggled to recover their balance. The few who had not lost limbs approached, pincers clicking eagerly, only to be met by Miroku's staff. Hojo ducked, narrowly missing a blow from hirakosu as it flew back to Sango's outstretched hand. She joined Miroku in fighting the closer spider demons.

Suddenly, she recognized them. These were the same type of demon as those she had fought with her father and Kohaku. She froze for a moment, then yelled.

"If anyone, and I mean ANYONE feels something bite at their neck, tell me! That's how they control people!" Miroku nodded briskly, a little absorbed with fighting one of the demons. Hojo did not pay any attention. He was still relatively unconcerned about this, although he was a bit startled by the huge stature of these spiders.

Then he felt something sting on the back of his neck. He shrugged it off. _Probably just a leg or something hitting me before it got to the ground._ He told himself. Then, he picked up a villager's discarded knife, and went for Sango's unprotected back.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For once, this chapter was short, not because I didn't have a clue where it was going, but because I really liked the cliff hanger available here!

Hirakosu gets used a lot. I know. I did that on purpose. I LOVE the hirakosu! If I could have any of their weapons, I'd pick hirakosu, purely because it's a huge boomerang shaped from a demon bone! (Am I gushing here or what?)  
If anyone has a problem with that, too bad. It's my story, and I can use my favorite weapon as much as I want!


	10. Chapter 10

Still don't own InuYasha. Would still like to.

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kagome heard the screaming as she was walking back to the village. Her eyes widened, and she started running. It was coming from the opposite side of the village, which worried Kagome a bit, until she realized it would give her a chance to get her bow from Kaede's house.

A minute later, she was snatching her bow and quiver from a corner of the main room of Kaede's house, and running towards the commotion. She could see a circle of spider demons surrounding three people. One of the people threw something, and Kagome saw a flash of beige go around the circle of demons: Sango's hirakosu. It must be Sango, Miroku, and a villager in the circle. She knocked and arrow to her bow string, but did not shoot. She was not quite within range, and she was not going to waste arrows until she got a bit closer. She heard Sango yell

"... feels something bite at their neck, tell me! That's how they control people!" Kagome kept that in mind. Clearly, Sango or her people had fought this sort of demon before. She kept running, and was now at a point where she could see the three people clearly, through a gap in the demons' ranks. Then she saw it. A small spider that had been crawling on the villager's neck, suddenly stopped. The villager's face went blank, and he picked a knife that had been lying on the ground, and dove for Sango's back. Kagome didn't think twice: she lifted her bow, and shot, hoping her perfect aim would make this work.

It did. Kagome's arrow, blazing with light, shot towards the spider demon's avatar, missed the back of his neck by a hair, and hit the spider that had sunk its fangs into his neck. The young man's face cleared, and he collapsed, a second before he would have stabbed Sango in the back. This display attracted the remaining demons' attention. Most turned to Kagome with shrieks of fury. Calmly, she put another arrow to her string, and started shooting for her life.

"HIRAKOSU!" Sango and Miroku were using Kagome's distraction to the best of their abilities. They were attacking from behind, decimating the demons. Kagome cleared a path for herself, shooting demons right and left, to her friends.

"How's it going?" She asked as she joined them.

"Pretty well. I won't deny InuYasha's wind scar would be helpful right now, but we're holding our own. We noticed the arrow you shot. I'm guessing a spider bit him?" Sango told her, catching hirakosu from her most recent throw. Kagome nodded.

"Yes, he was going after you with a knife he picked up." Sango hissed.

"I _hate_ these things. That's the_ second_ time they've used an avatar to try to kill me." There was silence, as the three continued to fight the rapidly diminishing horde of demons. It was Miroku who finally spoke.

"So these are some of the same demons who used your brother to kill your father and friends?" Sango nodded grimly, and threw hirakosu at an approaching demon.

"That means there's probably a villager who's been replaced by the leader of these things. We'll have to find him once we get rid of this lot."

"Lot? Don't you mean two?" Kagome said, shooting an arrow at one of the two remaining demons. Sango smiled, and threw her hirakosu one last time. It slammed through the body of one of the demons, as Kagome's arrow hit the other, and dissolved it in a blaze of light. Kagome fell to her knees, hands hitting the ground in front of her, panting. She saw feet approaching her. Shoes in a pair of tennis shoes from her own time.

_What the- someone else got through? Who?_ Why_?_ The other person from her time knelt down next to her, his arm going around her.

"Kagome?" a soft voice that she knew well asked, sounding stunned, and confused.

"Hojo?" She asked, knowing that looking up would be a bad idea. She had used too much power trying to help, and her vision was blurring slightly. If she moved to much, she would probably fall unconscious, or throw up.

"Yeah, it's me. Where are we? What _were_ those things?" Hojo asked, still slightly amazed by he had just seen.

"Feudal era of Ja-" She broke off when her vision started to spin. _Oh dear. This isn't good... _

"Kagome!" Sango knelt down on her other side, and took in her white face. Her mouth set in a grim line. _She must have used too much of her power with her arrows! If we don't take care of her, InuYasha will_ kill... She turned to Hojo. "I wouldn't try talking to her just now. She's not feeling too well." She looked at her friend "What possessed you to use so many arrows?!" She asked. Kagome smiled wanly.

"Wasn't-" she stopped, looking like she was going to be sick.

"Don't talk if that makes it worse. Come on, let's get you back to Kaede's." Sango paused, seeing Miroku's eager face, then frowned. "On second thought, let's wait until Shippo and Kirara get back." She turned, and smiled evilly at Miroku's obvious disappointment that he would not be able to grope Kagome while carrying her to Kaede's house. "Miroku, why don't you go see if you can find them?" Miroku walked off, sulking.

"I can help!" Hojo said eagerly. Sango stared at him for a moment. _You're joking. You think that I would let you move Kagome in a state like this? Besides, Kagome's light, but I don't think you can pick her up._ She considered a better way to say this, then hit on the right answer.

"If we wait for Kirara, she'll be more comfortable." Sango said calmly.

"Oh." Hojo kept chattering at Kagme for a long time, pausing as if he expected her to answer. Kagome never even tried. Sango kept a close eye on her, ready to catch her if she fell unconscious. A few minutes later, she did, falling forward into the arms that Sango held out to catch her. Hojo was startled when it happened.

"Wha-"

"She fainted. She used too much energy on her purification arrows." Sango explained bluntly. She watched the trees carefully, and muttered "Dammit, Miroku, get back here with Shippo and Kirara!"

Fortunately, Shippo and Kirara had already turned around and headed back to the village, so Miroku found them relatively quickly. They arrived a few minutes after Kagome fainted. Sango was relieved. She did not want to have InuYasha show up until after she got Kagome to a safe place where she could sleep, preferably not until after she had managed to ship Hojo back to his own time. She hoped she could manage it. Miroku and Shippo would help, she was certain. She was positive that they did not want InuYasha to see Hojo when Kagome was not able to control him any more than she did. In fact, Miroku probably wanted that to happen significantly less than Sango and Shippo. They had not forgotten Hojo's health lecture.

They put Kagome on Kirara's back, Sango sat behind her to keep her from falling off, and they took off, leaving Miroku, Shippo, and Hojo to walk. Hojo was not happy about this arrangement. He had wanted to be with Kagome. Shippo and Miroku were trying to explain why it was Sango taking Kagome, and not him, while skirting the real reason.

"She's my girlfriend! I'm supposed to take care of her!" He protested

"Kagome is probably more comfortable with Sango. She's a girl after all." Shippo pointed out. _And she would probably be even more comfortable with InuYasha, but I don't think it would be a good idea to bring him up... _

"Couldn't I have gone with them, at least?" Hojo asked, whining like a puppy.

"Kirara couldn't carry all three of you, especially not with Kagome in her condition." Miroku lied smoothly. That made Hojo pause.

"Oh." He said softly. He looked at Miroku with a concerned look on his face. "Can we get going? I'm worried about Kagome." Miroku nodded, feeling a wave of pity.

_Poor boy. He truly cares about Kagome. Still, I don't think he really understands her, or wants to, for that matter. He wants her to fit in the role he's created for her, and I think she's going to shatter it when she wakes up..._

They reached Kaede's house a little after the girls. Shippo and Hojo ran inside to see Kagome. Miroku waited outside for Sango and Kaede. They came out a few seconds later.

"Well," Sango said softly. "_This_ is not good." Miroku laughed uneasily.

"_That's_ an understatement. InuYasha is _not_ going to be happy about this."

"Think ye that you can get Hojo to return to his own time before InuYasha returns?" Kaede asked, concerned.

"Heh. I'd like to think that we can, but somehow, I just don't see that happening. He wants to know what's going on, and his girlfriend is here. Still, we should try." Sango said, and all three shuddered, thinking of what might happen to Hojo if he did not leave.

"Well, I'll be happy to give him funeral rights." Miroku said with a shrug. Sango rolled her eyes.

"Let's just hope Kagome wakes up before InuYasha-"

"Before I what?" InuYasha asked, and the three humans jumped.

"Uh, well, you see..." Miroku started, while Sango got a worried look on her face, and Kaede hastily reentered the house.

"Where's Kagome? I want to know why she sit me a little while ago." InuYasha asked bluntly.

"Ummm, about that..." Miroku started, stopping at InuYasha's look of annoyance.

"Where. Is. Kagome." He said slowly, in a very deadly voice. Sango answered for the monk, who was frozen by the half-demon's glare.

"She's recovering." She said flatly. InuYasha stared at her.

"What do you mean, she's recovering? Recovering from what?"

"While you were sulking," Sango said cooly, "A horde of spider demons attacked the village. Kagome used too many arrows trying to help us get rid of them, and now she's unconscious. She's inside, lying down until she recovers. Shippo's with her." Sango took a deep breath. The moment of truth had come. "And so is Hojo." InuYasha had started heading into to house after Sango said Shippo's name, but he froze when she said the name of Kagome's boyfriend.

"What did you say?" He asked slowly, hoping he had misheard. Sango looked him right in the eyes.

"I said Shippo and Hojo were with her. You have a problem with that?" InuYasha turned away from the door, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No. Why should I care? If the stupid girl wants her boyfriend with her, she can have him!" He stalked away, heading once again for the tree.

Meanwhile, inside the house, the four people were a slightly quieter time. Kagome was still unconscious, and Shippo snuggled down by her neck for a nap. Hojo was chattering Kaede's ear off, asking questions about her herbal medicines, and laughing at some of the things she practiced. Kaede, like Sango, was growing tempted to just hand him over to InuYasha, with reassurances that Kagome wouldn't mind if he turned up dead in a few days. Eventually, Sango and Miroku came in to watch Kagome. Kirara leapt onto Sango's shoulder mewling. Sango smiled, and began polishing her hirakosu. Eventually, she spoke.

"So, Hojo, do you believe there are demons now?" Hojo started. He had been in the middle of explaining to Kaede just why one of her herbs was not as good as medication.

"Huh? Oh. I guess I'm not really sure." Sango and Miroku stared.

"Your mind was taken over by a demon, and you're not _sure_?" Miroku asked, slightly stunned. Then he shook his head. "All it took for Kagome was one dragging her down through the well, and trying to kill her. You must really be in denial..." Hojo's eyes widened.

"A demon tried to kill Kagome?"

"Heh. Interesting phrasing." Sango said wryly. Hojo was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"_A_ demon. I suppose you could say that. You might want to add something like "every couple of days" to the end of that, though." She explained. Hojo's jaw dropped.

"That _does_ sound a bit more accurate." Miroku agreed ruefully. "Maybe even 'several' instead of 'A'." A glint of evil glee shined in his eyes. The past five minutes of lecturing had made Hojo no friends. He sat there, stock still, and finally stammered.

"B-b-b-but Kagome isn't here that often! She's been sick!" This made Sango and Miroku double over with laughter.

"Oh! Is that what she's saying?" Sango choked out. Hojo frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"What my dear Sango means," Miroku said, regaining his composure, "Is that Kagome's only been sick one time in the past year. She came down with a cold. The rest of the time, she's been making up excuses to come through the well for a little while." Hojo's mouth dropped open.

"You mean she's been coming here for over a year? Why didn't she tell me?"

"Would _you_ tell someone, if it were you?" Sango asked calmly. Slowly, Hojo shook his head no. "I didn't think so. Don't go picking at Kagome if you wouldn't do it yourself." Hojo was silent for a moment, as he looked at Kagome. Then he began to talk at Kaede again, this time sounding slightly shaken.

Kagome woke up to the sounds of an argument.

"Why not dump water on her face? By now we need to check to see if she's in a coma!"  
Was that Hojo's voice?

"I may not know what a coma is, but I _do_ know that it would be a really bad idea to dump water on her. She just needs to sleep!" That was Sango. Kagome was sure that her friend must be itching to wallop Hojo with hirakosu.

"She shot some arrows and fell unconscious! That would imply there's something wrong!" Hojo yelled, and footsteps moved across the floor.

"Don't you touch her! Kagome wouldn't like it!" That was Shippo. Kagome felt something brush against her cheek: her kitsune pup's tail. "I won't let you!"

"She's my girlfriend! We need to get her somewhere with doctors!" Hojo yelled. All the yelling was making Kagome's head hurt.

"Could you..." she hissed slightly in pain as she tried to sit up. _Right. Moving, bad idea!_ "Please be quiet?" Shippo pounced on her, hugging her neck.

"Kagome! You're awake!" He said gleefully. Kagome laughed, and hugged him back.

"Yes, I'm up. Not feeling too well, though." She put a hand to her head. "And I'm still pretty tired."

"All you did was shoot a couple of arrows." Hojo said, sounding slightly concerned., "Are you sick?" Kagome took a deep breath. The time for some major explanations that she had been putting off for a long time.

"No, I'm not. But I wasn't just shooting arrows. Couldn't you tell?" Hojo stared at her, then slowly shook his head. Sango, Miroku, and Shippo stared at him.

"You... can't see it?" Sango asked, slightly stunned. Hojo stared back.

"See what? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"Because, you can't see ANY spirit energy at all! Most people can see light around Kagome's arrows when she shoots at a demon." Miroku explained.

"Why? How's that possible?" Hojo asked, almost more confused than before.

"I'm a miko" (note: yes, I'm using miko. In my opinion, mikos and priestesses aren't the same thing, and I point blank refuse to type out "white magic user" when I like the Japanese word.) Kagome said simply. "My arrows are special. My power, my energy, goes through them to purify whatever demon I'm shooting at." Hojo just stared, looking vaguely unnerved. Miroku grinned.

"The poor boy is so awed that he cannot speak!" He joked. Kagome, Sango, and Shippo just glared at him. He shut up.

"Kagome," Sango asked changing the subject, "How soon do you think you'll be able to move again?" Kagome sat all the way up. Even though she was a bit tired, she was feeling much better.

"Probably as soon as everyone else is ready. I just hope that I don't slow us down..." She said, sounding a bit worried.

"You can ride Kirara until you're up to it." Sango assured her. Then she frowned. "Where _is_ Kirara anyway?" Shippo shrugged from his position by Kagome.

"I dunno. Maybe she's out by the tree?" He answered, thinking _She probably went out after InuYasha. I don't think we want to mention him right away, though..._ "I'll go look for her." He added, bouncing up, and heading out the door.

"Remember, when it starts getting dark, come _right_ back, whether you've found Kirara or not. It's dangerous." Kagome told him sternly. Shippo beamed at her.

"Don't worry Mo- Kagome!" He called back happily, "I'll be back before it gets too dark!" He smiled as he left. He loved it when Kagome acted like his mother. In fact, he had to be careful not to call her mommy now. That's who she was.

His Mommy.

Kagome smiled after the little fox demon. Her little boy was so sweet. She did not notice Sango shaking her head, until she spoke.

"Good grief, Kagome! Just adopt him already!" Kagome blushed slightly.

"What are you talking about?" She asked innocently. Sango rolled her eyes.

"You think the rest of us haven't noticed how you treat Shippo like he was your own child? You adore the kid, and he sticks to you like that white liquid sticky stuff you brought for him a couple months ago!"

"You mean... glue?" Hojo asked in a very confused voice.

"That's the stuff." Sango agreed. "Anyway, all you need to do is make it official!" Kagome shook her head slowly.

"I can't do that... what about his real parents? He might feel like I'm trying to take their place... I couldn't ask him to let me do that..." She explained slowly. Hojo shrugged.

"If his parents left him with you, and haven't come back for him, I think that could be termed abandonment." Kagome turned to him, eyes narrowed to slits. Hojo was startled.

_What the-_

"Shippo's parents were killed by two demons called the Thunder Brothers, because his father had a shard of the Shikon no Tama." Kagome said in the cold voice that Sango and Miroku had come to associate with extreme show of Kagome's temper. They edged away from Hojo, getting _behind_ Kagome where it was safe. "His father died trying to buy Shippo enough time to get away. We took him in, and went up against the brothers ourselves, a little later." Hojo's jaw dropped.

"_Why_?" Kagome shrugged.

"We had Shikon shards. Anyway, the spirit of Shippo's father helped us- he saved Shippo and me with his fox fire." Hojo looked confused.

"Shikon shards? Fox fire? What the-" Everyone else sighed.

"Stick with us long enough, which I wouldn't recommend," Miroku told him dryly, "And you'll find out. Heh, too much about the shards."

"And you'll find out what happens when people insult Shippo's parents in front of Kagome." Sango added, eyeing the still slightly mad Kagome.

_She seems to be controlling herself well... _

_1, 2, 3, 4, 5, don't start a fight with Hojo, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, he didn't know, 11, 12..._ Kagome was resorting to an old anger management trick she had learned as a child, resisting the urge to drag 

Hojo to the well and push him through. After all, he was her boyfriend, and she adored him... right?

_Amazing! You're actually starting to question yourself! You_ are _more intelligent than Kikyo!_ The blasted voice was back. At least this time it was not insulting her. _Yes, I do give compliments occasionally. Don't let it go to your head._ And miraculously, it shut up.

Kagome sighed slightly. She wished that InuYasha was there. She was getting a little worried, actually. He should be back by now...

_Did it occur to you that maybe he doesn't want to see you with Hojo? _The voice pointed out sweetly. Kagome almost rolled her eyes.

_Yeah, right. He's in love with Kikyo, remember? _ Kagome pointed out silently.

_And here I thought you were intelligent. Even if he does love Kikyo, and I would hesitate to say he does, that doesn't mean he appreciates someone he doesn't know hanging around you. Look how he gets with Kouga. He doesn't like Hojo any better. _The voice replied.

_Oh._ Was all Kagome could answer.

InuYasha sat on his branch of the tree, glowering. He wanted to go see how Kagome was doing, but he did not want to see Hojo. He refused to call him her boyfriend.

_And why is that?_ InuYasha groaned. The voice was back. _Of course I'm back. You didn't think I'd go away that easily, did you? _

"No..." InuYasha sighed.

_Good. Now, why do you care if Kagome's boyfriend is with her? It's not like you care. After all, you have Kikyo._ InuYasha could not quite pin down why, but the voice's words irritated him.

"I don't have Kikyo..."

_You know, it's really harsh to only like someone because she reminds you of someone else._ The voice chided him, determined to be as irritating as possible.

"I don't like Kagome because of Kikyo!" InuYasha snapped.

_Oh really? Funny coincidence, Kikyo looks almost exactly like Kikyo..._ The voice observed dryly. InuYasha growled.

"Yeah, and that's what I like least about her."

_It is, isn't it?_ The voice agreed smugly. _Then I must ask... Why do you like her? _

"Because... because..." InuYasha muttered, trying to think of an answer fast. The voice got tired of waiting, and sighed.

_Allow me. You liked Kagome at first because she accepted you. Now you like her because she's part of who you are. She changed you, and you can never get away from that. You love her for it._ InuYasha yelped and nearly fell off his tree branch at the last words. The voice snickered quietly. _What, didn't you realize that little detail?_ It asked sweetly. _Didn't you notice that you haven't been as eager to see Kikyo as you used to be? Now you almost dread it. And every night Kagome's here, you have to fight the urge to block the well with something so she can't leave you. You hate this boy she's dating, because she's chosen someone over you. You don't want that, but you don't want to force her into anything, because you don't want her to hate you. So, as a result, you're leaving her, and going off to sulk._ InuYasha listened to the voice's arguments with a slack jaw, trying to process all of this information. He did not notice Kirara's arrival at the foot of the tree. He was still trying to sort through everything.

"How do you know all this?" He muttered. The voice sighed in exasperation.

_I'm in your head, InuYasha._ Please _tell me that you can figure out where I'm getting all this._ InuYasha flushed slightly, mentally kicking himself for being so stupid. _You're_ admitting _it? Will wonders never cease!_ The voice added in sarcastically awed tones. _So,_ the voice began, getting back to the matter at hand, _What are you going to do about it? _

"What do you mean? There's not really a lot I can do." InuYasha pointed out in a vaguely depressed tone. "Not with _him_ around, anyway."

_Good point._ The voice sounded frustrated, like it was not too fond of this fact. _ There isn't really anything you can do to get rid of Hojo that won't get Kagome annoyed, and there isn't really anything you can do to get Kagome back with Hojo around. The voice paused. Except recruit the others..._

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Goodness knows this is longer than usual. Much longer. This was actually originally intended to be three or four parts, but they were merged into one mega chapter to keep my DeviantArt readers happy through November, when I participated in Nanowrimo. So, don't expect this length again. You won't find it.


	11. Chapter 11

Once again, I don't own InuYasha. I'll let you know when I do.

-- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shippo was wandering around, looking for Kirara, and InuYasha. The first place he tried was the well, but he did not find them, and to be honest, he had not really expected to. That was more where Kagome was likely to go when she wanted to be alone, because she could go back to her own time if she felt like it. Unfortunately, Shippo was not certain where to try next. All he knew was that he did not want to go back to Kaede's home as long as Hojo was there to lecture him. Then again, he _did_ want to be with his mother... He shook his head. As much as he loved Kagome, there was no way he was going to listen to_ another_ lecture about his candy, especially when it did not apply to him. Besides, he would probably end up blasting Hojo with fox fire, and that would disappoint Kagome. He never wanted to do that. He wanted her to be proud of him, even if he never did get to call her 'Mommy'.

Suddenly, he heard something snap behind him. He whirled, readying his top in case of danger. He was too slow. A tentacle grabbed him, and another knocked his top out of his hand. A low, growling voice rumbled in his ear

"Kitsune kit... mmmm, yes, nice and tender. You will be a good meal." The demon who had grabbed Shippo laughed, and started pulling him closer. To Shippo, it looked like a shapeless blob of goo that sprouted soggy, somewhat solid tentacles as it wished.

_Is this..._ thing _going to absorb me?_ Shippo struggled, trying to break free from his slimy captor. The tentacle wrapped around him more tightly, and the blob laughed again. This time, Shippo saw that it had a mouth with many great, sharp, pointy teeth.

_Well_, Shippo thought wryly to himself as he struggled harder against the tentacle that had grabbed him, _At least if this doesn't work, I'll have been beaten by something with teeth... _

"FOX FIRE!" Shippo yelled, and bright blue flame engulfed the tentacle that had grabbed him, making the blob demon drop him with a howl of pain. Shippo did not waste any time. He had no idea where InuYasha and Kirara were, so his best bet was to do what his child instincts were telling him to do: run to his mother. Without a backwards glance, he took off, hoping to be able to reach the safety of Kagome's arms before the demon got him. He heard the sound of something pulling itself along quickly behind him. He ran even faster, blindly tripping over tree roots and rocks as he went. More than once he thought he felt something gooey and slimy hit his leg. He would scream, and then realize that he was still moving, so the demon had not caught him yet, even though he heard the demon laughing as it gained on him. Then, suddenly, a thin, slimy tentacle grabbed his leg, and pulled him back. The demon had caught him.

"Come along, little dinner. You've been an awful lot of trouble, so you'd better taste good. Any last words?" The demon blob chuckled as it dangled Shippo over his open mouth, giving Shippo an excellent view of its big, sharp, pointy teeth. Shippo screamed one word as loud as he could.

"_MOMMY!!"_

A few minutes after Shippo left Kaede's, Kagome broke off mid conversation with Hojo, and got up from her position on the floor, shaking very slightly as she did so, recovering her balance.

"Kagome?" Sango asked, puzzled. Kagome turned to her friend with a slight frown.

"Something's wrong... I think I'm sensing a demon aura... and I'm worried about Shippo." She said softly. Sango and Miroku stiffened, also sensing the aura, now that Kagome had pointed it out. Hojo just stared at them like they were idiots. Kagome picked up her bow and quiver from their position by the door. Sango gasped.

"No! Kagome, you can't fight the demon! You're too weak from the last batch! Kirara isn't here to help you get to... wherever Shippo is. You have to stay here! Miroku and I will go look for him, and try to get him back safely." Miroku nodded, then both immediately shrank back from the ferocity of Kagome's glare.

"I don't care whether I'm too weak to fight or not. I'll use the Shikon shards if I have to, but I _am_ leaving, and I _will_ find my child, and help him if he needs me. Got it? Good. Now, you can either help me find Shippo and get there, or you can let me go alone, but either way, you will _not_ stop me. Got it? " Sango and Miroku gulped, and nodded.

"Right then... we'll be helping you find Shippo then!" Miroku said hastily, while Sango nodded fervently. Kagome smiled icily.

"Good." She walked out the door, a bit slowly, but on her own strength. Sango and Miroku looked at each other, and sighed.

"We're doomed." Miroku said morosely. "We better get going, and hope that he doesn't find her walking on her own so soon after she collapsed. If we're with her, it might make us slightly less doomed..." Sango sighed, and nodded in agreement. Then she bit her lip.

"I hope Shippo's alright... if he is, Kagome probably won't try to do anything that might tire her out." They left, hurrying to catch up with Kagome, leaving Hojo staring at them, slack jawed from the floor of the hut, slightly amazed that his girlfriend was this determined.  
He had had no idea. Sure, he knew that she was insane enough to study for, and try to take, a test when she was sick with a really bad cold, but this point blank insistence on fighting when she could not fight all for the sake of one strange little kid who was addicted to candy that she called her child. He was not really sure whether he approved of this or not; after all, she was risking her health for someone she should not really be worried about, and he did not like that. With a sigh, he stayed where he was, wondering what he should do with all that he had found out today, and wishing he had never followed Kagome into the well house.

Sango and Miroku could tell that Kagome was still really tired, purely from the way she walked. However, she never complained, and made a bee-line for the well. Sango and Miroku were totally confused as to why she chose to go to the well, when they heard the sound of a child pelting away from something terrifying, and the crashing sounds of trees bending and snapping in something's wake. Kagome stiffened, and tried to move faster in the direction of the sound. Then there was a yelp of surprise, and a low rumbling chuckle. They watched as Kagome ran past a few more trees, and then froze, her eyes locked on something they could not yet see from their position.

"Come along, little dinner. You've been an awful lot of trouble, so you'd better taste good. Any last words?" The low rumbling voice asked as Sango and Miroku caught up to Kagome, and saw the huge blob demon dangling Shippo above his gaping mouth.

"_MOMMY!!"_ Shippo screamed. Without a second of hesitation, Kagome pulled an arrow from her quiver, and knocked it.

"LET GO OF MY CHILD!" She yelled, and shot her arrow at the tentacle holding Shippo. It blazed brightly and cut easily through the gooey tentacle, making it recoil in pain, and drop Shippo to the ground at its side. Kagome's legs started to shake as she lowered her bow. She had not killed it. She did not think that one arrow would be enough to slay a thing like that, which was why she had aimed for its tentacle, hoping to free Shippo. The little fox demon hit the ground with a thud. Quickly, he got up and ran to Kagome, screaming.

"Mommy! Mommy!"

"Shippo!" She called, holding out her arms. He leapt into them, crying and snuggling into her neck. Kagome sank to her knees, holding her kit close.

"Shh, shh, it's ok. I'm here. You're safe." He snuggled closer.

"Mommy..." He whimpered. Kagome's eyes widened.

_Did... did he just call me 'Mommy'? _ Still, she held him close.

"I'm here, my baby, I'm here."

"KAGOME, MOVE!" Sango yelled, as the blob demon roared and shot out a tentacle towards them. Kagome managed to fling herself and Shippo sideways and out of reach. "Miroku, damn you, use your wind tunnel!" Sango yelled at him, throwing her hirakosu at the demon. Miroku shook his head as Kagome rolled with Shippo away from another tentacle. She yelped in pain; She had caught her ankle in a tree root. Sango's hirakosu flew past the pair, aiming for the demon. It cut through the gooey mass, but it just reformed, more irritated than ever.

"I can't! Kagome and Shippo are in the way!" Sango cursed. There was no way Kagome could move now; her foot was still caught. The blob demon roared in fury again, and reached for 

Kagome and Shippo. Not knowing why she did so, Kagome shoved out her left hand, and screamed the name that she now knew was probably her only hope.

"INUYASHA!"


	12. Chapter 12

I did not create InuYasha. If I did, I would not be wondering how the heck I'm going manage to pay for an anime con without my parents consent and/or knowlege.  
I wouldn't be trying to do as well as I do in school either, 'cause I wouldn't need to worry about the values of merit scholarships...

-- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

InuYasha leapt out of the tree, ready to begin walking back to Kaede's. He did not really want to see Hojo and Kagome together, but if that was the price he had to pay to make sure Kagome was alright and protected, then he would live with it. He doubted he would be polite to Hojo, though. The second he hit the ground, Kirara ran up to him, growling slightly the way she did when she sensed something was wrong.

"Hey, Kirara, what's wrong?" Then he heard Shippo scream, and, a moment later, he thought he heard Kagome's voice yelling something he could not quite make out. "Damn that kit, he's went and got lost, and Kagome got up and went looking for him before she was ready to get out of bed!" InuYasha muttered, and started running in the direction of their voices, coming from the direction of the village, Kirara on his heels. The sounds were getting louder every second.

"KAGOME, MOVE!" That was Sango. InuYasha growled. They had managed to get into trouble without him. Again. He sped up passing the well, and noticing the path of bent and twisted trees that was leading towards the village.

_Shit. Something's attacking them! Hang on, Kagome!_ He ran, following Kagome's scent, and the path of destruction left by whatever was attacking them. He heard Kagome yelp in pain, and started running even faster. There was a noise like something sticky and dripping hitting the ground; InuYasha guessed that Sango had tried to use her Hirakosu.

_Where's Miroku and his wind tunnel when you need them?_ He thought bitterly, running as fast as he could.

"I can't!" That was the monk. "Kagome and Shippo are in the way!" InuYasha made out the sounds of Sango cursing, and a roar of fury from some sort of demon; now that he and Kirara were closer, he could sense the demon's aura coming off it, full force. It was enough that he was not sure that even if Kagome's miko abilities were at full power she would be able to purify it.

"Damn it!" He growled, running towards them.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed, a little ways ahead of him. InuYasha drew the Tetsuaiga, and ran through the trees ahead of him, ready to fight to save his Kagome.

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the feeling of slimy, gooey tentacles sliding around her waist. She felt nothing. Slowly she opened her eyes, and stared. The blob demon was 

howling in rage on the other side of a spiritual barrier extending from her left hand that surrounded Shippo and herself. Her eyes widened.

_Did Miroku... No, his power doesn't feel this way, and he needs more time to make a shield like this... Kikyo? No, she would never help me if she didn't have to, although this is a lot like her work..._ Kagome gasped. _Did... did _I_ do this? Is this _my_ barrier? It feels sort of like my arrows... and I'm getting more tired by the second... Yeah, I'd say this is my barrier..._ She gulped. _ I _really_ hope someone kills that thing soon, because I don't know how much longer I can keep this up..._

Shippo was looking around with stunned amazement.

"Kagome... are you doing this?" He whispered.

"I-I think so, Shippo." She said softly. Shippo looked worried.

"You shouldn't be doing this! You're still tired after the fight with the spider demons!" Kagome smiled weakly.

"I know, Shippo, but if I can keep him off you long enough to buy enough time for someone to kill that thing, then you at least will be safe." She told him softly. Shippo looked up at her, and hugged her hard around the neck.

"But you could die! That's happened to mikos who overexert themselves! Remember what's-her-name... Tsukiomi? Look what happened to her!" Kagome smiled at him.

"That's true. But Tsukiomi did what she did to save Hakudomi (author's note: I'm not 100 positive I got that name right...). I'm protecting you, Shippo. If that means that I'm going to die, then, well, I guess I'm going to die."

"NO!" Shippo yelled, and hugged Kagome's neck tighter "You're not allowed to die Mommy!" Kagome's free arm hugged Shippo back.

"I don't want to die, but if that's what it..." She stopped abruptly, then asked hesitantly "Did...did you just call me Mommy?" Shippo blushed, but he figured he had better tell her now, incase he never got another chance.

"Yes! You're my mommy! Don't leave me!" He started crying. Kagome hugged him tighter. Shippo was a little nervous. _What if she doesn't want to be my mommy?_ He asked himself. A voice, which had apparently been spending too much time with InuYasha, gave him the mental equivalent of a club to the top of the head.

_Of COURSE she wants to be your mother, you stupid kit! Why ELSE would she be hugging you and nearly killing herself to keep you safe?_ Shippo opened his mouth to reply, then shut it, not only because he did not have a reply, but also because he realized that he would sound very crazy to answer a voice in his head out loud.

_I'm impressed. You aren't as stupid as I thought. It took both Kagome and InuYasha_ much_ longer to figure out that talking to a voice in your head is generally defined as crazy. Oh, incidentally, InuYasha should show up with the Tetsuaiga right about... now. _

InuYasha ran out of the trees just behind Sango and Miroku, with Kirara on his heels.

"Can't you four stay out of trouble for ten minutes?" He growled, taking in the scene. His eyes widened as they passed over Kagome and Shippo inside her barrier, then he shook his head, thinking that he'd worry about that later. It was a good thing that it was there, though. It would protect Kagome and Shippo from the wind scar. He turned to face the demon, a giant blob. His eyebrows raised, and he turned to look at Sango and Miroku.

"The four of you couldn't defeat a giant blob?" He asked dryly. Sango and Miroku glared, not the least bit embarrassed.

"Kagome shot him with one of her arrows to make him drop Shippo, I hit him with my hirakosu, and Miroku can't use his wind tunnel. I don't _think_ Shippo did anything..."

"I hit him with fox fire to make him drop me over by the well!" Shippo called, his demon ears picking up the conversation. "And would you _please_ hurry up and kill this thing? Mommy's really tired, and I don't think she can keep up the barrier much longer!" The blob demon laughed.

"Mommy, eh? I'll just take eat her too! Once I get rid of this damn barrier." It roared and started pounding at the barrier, sending one tentacle after another speeding towards it. Inside the barrier, Kagome was wincing with each blow.

"Tell him to PLEASE hurry!" She said to Shippo softly. Shippo nodded nervously.

"She says PLEASE hurry, InuYasha!" He yelled desperately. He did not want to lose his mommy, now that he had finally gotten the guts to let her know he felt that way.

Shippo did not need to worry. InuYasha had already started his attack.

"WIND SCAR!" InuYasha roared, slashing the Tetsuaiga down. The blob demon howled as he was destroyed by the wind scar. Kagome's barrier flickered slightly under the force of InuYasha's attack, but held firm. As soon as she felt the wind scar stop, she let down her barrier, breathing hard. Slowly, she unhooked her left ankle from the tree root it had gotten tangled in, and hissed in pain

"Mommy!" Shippo yelled, and knelt in front of her face, looking concerned. Kagome smiled reassuringly at him.

"Don't worry, baby, I'm just tired. I'll be alright." Shippo looked relieved.

"Keh. Can't you get yourself out of trouble without my help, wench?" InuYasha asked smugly. Kagome glared at him.

"InuYasha, sit boy!"

THUD!

"Hey! Is that the way to treat the person who just saved you?" He asked indignantly.

"IT IS WHEN YOU'RE TIRED, YOUR ANKLE FEELS LIKE YOU SPRAINED IT OR SOMETHING, AND YOU DON'T REALLY WANT TO DEAL WITH _IDIOTS_ WHO CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHEN TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT!" Kagome yelled. Granted, it was not as loud as she normally got, and did not look as impressive as when she was standing, and directly in InuYasha's face, but it was still enough to make the half-demon back off. He knew better than to mess with Kagome when she was in _that_ mood. Kagome tried to stand up, managed to make it to her knees. She turned to Shippo.

"Shippo, could you pass me my bow?" She asked softly. Shippo nodded, and ran to where Kagome had dropped the bow when she rolled away from the blob demon. He picked up and delivered it to Kagome, who smiled at him. "Thank you, sweet heart. Now, let's see if this works..." She dug the end of her bow into the ground, and tried to stand. It did not work. Her hurt ankle would not take her weight, and neither would her legs. She sighed, and supposed that she should be grateful to be on her knees. Sango walked over to her, Kirara at her side.

"Here, Kagome, let me help." Sango slowly helped Kagome up, carrying most of her weight. Kagome was standing on one foot, to keep off her ankle. Sango looked at her, and quickly decided that they needed to get her on Kirara as soon as possible. "Umm, InuYasha?" She asked hesitantly.

"Keh." He answered, having a feeling he knew what Sango was going to ask.

"Would you help me get Kagome onto Kirara?"

"I will help you Sango!" Miroku said eagerly, rushing forward.

"NO!" Kagome, Sango, InuYasha, and Shippo chorused, and Kirara mewed her equivalent of no emphatically.

"Sure, I'll help you Sango." InuYasha said hurriedly. He might be annoyed with Kagome, but he was not heartless enough to leave both girls to be groped by Miroku. He walked over to Sango and Kagome, and picked her up, with one arm behind her back, and the other under knees. Gently, he set her down on Kirara's back. She smiled slightly.

"Thanks InuYasha." She said quietly. InuYasha looked a bit surprised.

"For what? All I did was put you on the cat..." Her smile widened. ./p

"Well, yes for that, but I was also thanking you for saving Shippo and me earlier... and for saving Sango and me from Miroku just now." InuYasha turned away to hide his grin.

"Keh. I may be heartless, but I'm not that heartless." He pointed out.

"You're _not_ heartless!" Kagome said heatedly, but still not very loudly. InuYasha's smile turned slightly bitter. Kagome did not see this; his back was still towards her.

_This is why I love you, Kagome._ He thought, _Because you were the first to believe I wasn't heartless, and you won't let me believe it, either. I thought that Kikyo believed that about me... but after she came back, I started to figure out she didn't. Not really. She wanted me to be human so I would have one. _

_You're admitting it! You're actually admitting it! I don't believe it. Well, actually, I can. I haven't really left you much choice._ InuYasha bit back a curse. The stupid voice was back. Again. _Of COURSE I'm back. What did you expect? You need help to get rid of that Hojo idiot, don't you?_ InuYasha had to admit that he was a bit happy to have _someone_ on his side. _You do have people on your side other than me, you know._ The voice told him calmly. _ Shippo for starters. He hates Hojo. Apparantly, Hojo keeps trying to convince him that he's eating too much candy and he just won't shut up about it. May I suggest talking to him? He is Kagome's kit, after all. He has a lot of influence with her. _

_Kagome's kit? What are you talking about? He's not her kit! _ InuYasha snarled mentally. The voice sighed in exasperation.

_Haven't you been paying attention? Shippo is calling her Mommy. She's calling him names like baby and sweetheart. What do you think that means? Because I call it a mother-son relationship. She's all but adopted him. Haven't you noticed before now? _

Now that InuYasha thought about it, that made a lot of sense. The voice gave its equivalent of an eye roll.

_Good. You're not completely hopeless. I was beginning to get worried. And no, I'm not that easy to get rid of. Sheesh, you'd think I was killing you two or something..._

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The voice has infected Shippo! Who will be next? Laughs evilly God, I love that voice!

So, ummmm... yeah... that's about it. Oh, and I know Kagome can't make barriers. That's why she and Shippo are going "What the heck?". Honestly, I personally don't see why she couldn't, so, because I am author, I used my power to make her create a barrier! loves being the author!


	13. Chapter 13

Not the owner of InuYasha. Nope. Seriously not. This would be better if I was….

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The group began walking back to Kaede's house. About two seconds into the short walk, Shippo scrambled onto Kirara's back, and curled up with the barely conscious Kagome, who smiled at him, and wrapped her arm around her kit, hugging him close. Sango and Miroku followed the two, talking quietly, mostly happy to be alive, and concerned about Kagome. The entire way, InuYasha walked next to Kirara, his eyes fixed on Kagome, making sure nothing dangerous got anywhere near her. He was already annoyed with himself for leaving her alone, and letting her get into this condition. However, he was even madder at Hojo. The stupid idiot _knew_ Kagome was tired, and he _still_ let her out of the house. And then he had not even come to help. InuYasha knew that while he might not have been able to stop Kagome from leaving, he _definitely_ would have been there to make sure she did not get hurt. Well, actually, he would not have let Kagome leave. He would have tied her up and gagged her to make sure she did not sit him.

_You know, it's that sort of behavior that makes getting the two of you together difficult... _The voice pointed out snidely. Then paused. _Not that it would have been a bad idea, mind, but for the record... _

_Shut up._ InuYasha snapped at it mentally. For once, the voice complied.

"Why were you guys out here? You knew Kagome was still recovering, so why did you leave the village?" Shippo shifted a little guiltily.

"Well, originally, it was just me. I went looking for Kirara, after she went to find you. Then I guess the others went looking for me..."

"Lady Kagome sensed a demon, and went after Shippo." Miroku supplied from behind them. InuYasha turned infuriated eyes on him. Miroku gulped and hastily continued. "We tried. Sango and I told her she was still to weak, and recovering, but Lady Kagome glared at us." He shuddered, and InuYasha knew exactly what glare Kagome had used. The one that could inspire fear in the heart of the greatest demon if he knew Kagome at all. "She pretty much told us that she was going to find and help Shippo no matter what, even if it meant using the Shikon shards. Sango and I followed, figuring we could provide back up if needed." InuYasha nodded curtly.

"And what about Hojo? Why isn't _he_ here?" Miroku rolled his eyes.

"Be nice InuYasha." Kagome called softly from Kirara's back. InuYasha clenched his teeth, then added in a tone that was close to civil, but did not quite manage it.

"Who says I wasn't? I was just asking a simple question."

"No, you weren't. And you still aren't." She said, sounding sleepy. InuYasha sighed. She always managed to see right through him when he was hiding something.

"Fine. But answer the question, Monk." Miroku shrugged.

"Probably because he wasn't worried about Shippo. Or it might be because he was in shock from Lady Kagome's display of temper..." He said thoughtfully, adding _Or just because he's useless..._ in his mind. Kagome laughed weakly.

"I don't think he's ever seen me get really angry before. It's not something I do very often, you know."

"Keh!" You do it all the time when I don't want you to go home!" InuYasha disagreed. Kagome smiled slightly.

"True." Her eyes slid shut, and she went to sleep. Miroku opened his mouth to say something, but immediately shut it when InuYasha turned and glared at him. InuYasha's glare was even more frightening than Shesshomaru's. Miroku might be a pervert, but he was not, contrary to popular belief, stupid. At least, he was not _that_ stupid. Sango leaned in very close to Miroku, and whispered extremely quietly.

"I bet Kagome's asleep. And I would bet that Hojo is going to be scared out of his wits when we get back, and injured to some extent. I also bet that if you make one move to help Hojo when InuYasha goes after him, I won't stop at slamming you over the head with hirakosu. I will throw it at you. Got it?" Miroku nodded fervently. Sango smiled sweetly. "Good." Miroku leaned towards her, and replied in the same low whisper.

"Give me _some_ credit, please. I see no reason to stop a good thing..." His hand inched to Sango's backside.

SLAP!

"Sorry InuYasha, if I woke up Kagome." Sango said coolly, as she walked forward, head held high leaving Miroku in a crumpled heap behind her. InuYasha grinned.

"You didn't. And I wouldn't have gone after you for that. The idiot monk was the one who groped you." Sango smiled at him.

"Thank you." She walked on the other side of Kirara, looking sidelong at InuYasha, watching his expression. It was softer than usual when he looked at Kagome's sleeping form. A vaguely evil smile twitched at her lips.

_If there was a pair of people more perfect for each other, then I haven't met them. Now, how to manage to make them see that... I believe that it is time for Miroku, Shippo, and I to have a council of war..._ She thought.

_A very good idea, Sango. A very good idea. However, how are you going to get rid of Hojo? _A voice in her head asked, sounding vaguely eager.

_Oh, I figure he'll do something stupid as soon as Kagome wakes up. If not before then. _Sango thought to herself with a shrug, knowing from personal experience that it sounds extremely crazy to talk to random internal voices. The voice chuckled.

_That's true. I hadn't thought about that. And I see you've met other internal voices, at least enough of us to know not to talk! Very perceptive of you. _

_No, just a fast learner. I don't trust you, by the way, so shut it._ The voice laughed, sounding almost gleeful.

_Of course, my dear Sango._ And miraculously, the voice actually silenced at request for the second time that day. What Sango did not know, was the reason the voice was so compliant was that it had found its next project...


	14. Chapter 14

Me? Own InuYasha? No WAY!!

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Just in front of Kaede's house, Kirara stopped, and looked at InuYasha, then Sango, mewling sadly. Sango understood at once.

"She can't fit through the door in her large form, especially not carrying Kagome. We'll have to wake her up." She explained. InuYasha shook his head.

"No, I'll carry her." He picked Kagome up, and her eyes opened slightly, and protested sleepily. Then she saw who was carrying her, and she settled herself in his arms. Her eyes were still half open as InuYasha carried her inside and set her down on the mat that she had been sleeping on earlier. Kagome's eyes started to close when she heard a yell of fear. He eyes snapped open, and she started to push herself up, and then collapsed. Then she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. It was InuYasha's. She relaxed, and her eyes slid shut again. She realized who had yelled. It was Hojo, who was probably reacting to the presence of a creature with dog ears, fangs, claws, and silver hair.

"Shut it, you idiot." InuYasha snarled. "You're waking up Kagome. She needs sleep."  
Hojo gulped, obviously freaked out. Kagome's eyes open slightly, and she mumbled.

"InuYasha, be nice. He doesn't understand..." her voice trailed off.

"Keh." But InuYasha stopped talking, and just glared at Hojo, who's eyes were wide with fear. A second later, Shippo bounded into the house, and snuggled down next to Kagome, without saying a word to Hojo, or InuYasha. Sango followed him closely, with Kirara in her arms, and Miroku was close on her heels.

"Hello Hojo." Sango said with a straight face. "I see you've met InuYasha." Hojo's eyes flickered to Sango, and then back to InuYasha's glaring face. Sango and Miroku mercilessly quashed the urge to laugh. Hojo was _not_ prepared to meet his girlfriend's fiercest protector.

"What's wrong with Kagome? This is the second time she's been like this today..." InuYasha's eyes flashed dangerously.

"She's like this because she just used up a lot of energy saving herself and Shippo!" He snarled. Hojo flinched, and InuYasha continued mercilessly. "Why the Hell did you let her leave when you knew she was still recovering? She could have _died_, along with Shippo! Don't you care about that at _all_?" Hojo just stared at him, looking shocked and confused.

"Why would she die? She's just tired. How would that kill her?" InuYasha's eyes flashed, and he took a deep breath to really yell at Hojo, when a soft hand touched his wrist.

"InuYasha." Kagome said softly, and he looked down into her dark half-lidded eyes. She smiled softly when she saw she had his attention, and continued. "Be nice. Hojo doesn't have a clue 

what's going on, or what it means that I'm a miko. Give him a break. Besides, I can't sleep when you're yelling so much." InuYasha immediately looked away feeling guilty.

"Feh." He refused to admit that she was the reason he was stopping. And he thought it might be best not to mention that Hojo was only getting a temporary reprieve. As soon as Kagome woke up again, Hojo would pay for letting her leave.

Hojo looked up to the sound of the door being opened. Finally, the others were back, and he would have someone to talk to! He saw a tall figure enter, blocking the light from the doorway for a minute. Then the figure moved, and Hojo saw a creature with fangs, claws, dog ears, and silver hair cradling his girlfriend in its arms. Hojo stared for a moment, not registering the fact that Kagome seemed perfectly content, and not in the least bit afraid. The... thing laid Kagome down on the mat where she had been sleeping earlier with her back facing Hojo, and Hojo finally came out of his paralysis. He yelled. He saw Kagome stiffen slightly, and try to push herself up. She collapsed, and the creature put hand on her shoulder, looking at him with a glare.

"Shut it, you idiot." he snarled, "You're waking up Kagome. She needs sleep." Hojo gulped. Whatever was standing next to Kagome, it was vaguely terrifying. Then he heard Kagome mumur

"InuYasha, be nice. He doesn't understand..." Hojo's eyes flickered to his girlfriend's form and back to the thing sitting next to her. He felt his eyes widen with fear.

"Keh." The thing, InuYasha, Hojo thought Kagome had called him, sniffed, and resumed glaring at him.

Shippo darted into the room, and snuggled down next Kagome's neck. He was followed by Sango, who was carrying that cat-thing with two tails, and Miroku. He glanced at them desperately, hoping for an explanation, but inexplicably found his gaze drawn back to the glare of Inu- whatever his name was. They surveyed the situation with blank faces, and then Sango spoke.

"Hello, Hojo. I see you've met InuYasha." Her voice was blank, as if she was trying to hide something. Hojo finally managed to screw up the courage to say something.

"What's wrong with Kagome? This is the second time she's been like this today..." Hojo shut up as InuYasha's eyes flashed; he looked furious.

"She's like this because she just used up a lot of energy saving herself and Shippo!" He snarled. Hojo flinched in fear. Whatever InuYasha was, he was clearly _very_ mad at Hojo. Something told Hojo that was _not_ a good thing. At all. "Why the Hell did you let her leave when you knew she was still recovering?" He continued, still furious. "She could have _died_, along with Shippo! Don't you care about that at _all_?" Now Hojo was seriously confused, and very much afraid for his life.

"Why would she die? She's just tired. How would that kill her?" He asked timidly, and InuYasha's eyes flashed again, with a look that Hojo was coming to associate with impending doom. InuYasha took a deep breath through clenched teeth, making his fangs _very_ obvious to Hojo, and was about to yell, when he stopped suddenly. It took Hojo a second to realize that Kagome had put her hand on InuYasha's wrist to get his attention, and InuYasha was looking down at her. A second later, Kagome began to speak very quietly, so that Hojo could not hear most of what she said. Occasionally, he caught phrases like

"...doesn't have a clue what's going on... what it means that I'm a miko..." Then her voice got a little louder. "Besides, I can't sleep when you're yelling so much." Hojo stared in stunned amazement as what he considered to be a scary, uncontrollable inhuman creature suddenly looked away from his girlfriend's eyes. In fact, if he did not know better, Hojo would say that the expression etched on InuYasha's face was guilt.

"Feh." InuYasha said, tucking his hands into his sleeves, and that seemed to be the end of it. Hojo relaxed very slightly, thinking he was home free.

Sango rolled her eyes as Hojo relaxed, knowing that he was thinking he was safe.

_Only a stupid idiot would think that InuYasha was finished with him when he let Kagome go get herself in a position where she could get killed after that. Well, that does define Hojo, I suppose..._

Calmly, she got up, grabbed her hirakosu, and the small bag containing her clothes, and turned to the others.

"I'm going to get changed. I want to get out of this armor. I'm taking Kirara. We'll be back in a minute." Miroku and InuYasha nodded. Shippo and Kagome were asleep, and Hojo did not react at all.

True to her word, Sango walked back into the house a few minutes later, dressed in her usual clothes. She sat her hirakosu against the wall, and took her usual seat next to Miroku, waiting for Kagome to wake up.

_If Hojo suggests dumping water on her again, InuYasha will kill him. Then we'll have to track down Sesshomaru and some how talk him into using the Tensaiga to bring him back... so Miroku and I can have a turn..._ Sango thought contentedly. Then she stiffened.

Hojo was staring at her. And she did not like the way he was looking at her. Kirara hissed at him, attracting Miroku's attention. Miroku's eyes narrowed to slits, and very slowly he edged closer to Sango. For once, Sango did not mind in the slightest. Not at all.

Hojo had not really reacted when Sango left, but he definitely noticed when she came back in. Without her armor on, Sango looked... different. Prettier, somehow. He could not stop staring at her, even when Kirara hissed at him. He did not really notice that Sango had a look of 

vaguely disgusted horror on her face, and that Miroku was edging closer to her every second. He just could not stop.

Miroku had noticed that Hojo was staring at Sango the moment she came back into the house. He did not like it. At all. Sango was his woman, and Hojo was already in enough trouble for having Kagome. While Miroku might be the calmest of the group, he was far from the least dangerous. His wind tunnel would make quick work of Hojo, if he tried anything. As it was, Hojo was lucky that InuYasha was a little preoccupied with watching Kagome's face to notice the direction of Hojo's stare. He would be _really_ dead, then. When Kirara hissed at Hojo, Miroku felt his eyes narrow into slits. It took a lot to anger him, but if Kirara was hissing, Sango was clearly upset. That gave _him_ permission to begin edging closer to Sango, trying to indicate to Hojo that Sango was taken.

Hojo did not get the message.

The next thing Miroku did could be considered either extremely risky, or extremely territorial, neither of which would be to pleasing to Sango. Slowly, to provide Sango time to tell him to back off if she wished, Miroku put his arm around her. Much to the monk's surprise, Sango did not mind at all. She actually moved a little closer to him.

Kirara started hissing again. Hojo's eyes were still locked on Sango, who's hand was inching towards the hirakosu. Miroku leaned down and whispered very quietly.

"If he tries anything, I'm yelling at InuYasha to get out of the way and using the wind tunnel." Sango beamed up at him.

"Thank you. I appreciate that. Just know that if _you_ try anything, my hirakosu is within grabbing distance." Miroku gulped, and nodded. Sango's smile turned slightly evil. "Good."

-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - -- - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It occurs to me that I have not given credit to my partner in crime for this story here on . She is my best friend, who prefers to maintain her DeviantArt pseudonym of Roze010. Absolutely wonderful girl! She talked out a huge portion of the chapters with me, gave me several brilliant ideas, including the little scene above with Sango, Miroku, and Hojo! I loves her!


	15. Chapter 15

Nothing except the voice is mine. The rest belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Not me. I am a high schooler who can only draw one pine tree on a good day. Do you honestly think that I could have written and drawn an immensely popular manga series? 'Cause if you do, you need help.  
Badly.

-- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - --

The voice observed everything that was happening in the small room, and did the mental voice equivalent of shaking its head.

_Stupid, idiotic, slow, irritating, proud sentient beings! Why can't they just do what they want! It would make my existence _so_ much easier! If I didn't know taking over bodies was extremely unethical, and could get me in _major_ trouble with the National Mental Voices Association, I'd take over theirs and _force_ them to get together. They'd probably thank me in the long run!_ The voice sighed, and wished that he could bang his head against the wall. Sure, he had gotten InuYasha to admit that he loved Kagome, but Kagome still believed she was in love with Hojo. Granted, she was starting to have her doubts, but the voice was relatively certain that Kagome would not ditch Hojo until InuYasha confessed his love for her. Unless, of course, Hojo did something _incredibly_ stupid. If the voice could have grinned demonically, he would have. Hojo was _certainly_ capable of doing that. Heck, the boy was something incredibly stupid waiting to happen! It was relatively certain that if it just let Hojo be himself, he would do something dumb enough to annoy even the eternally too forgiving Kagome to the point of breaking up with him and shipping him forward to his own time. All he had to do was wait.

That, and ensure that InuYasha did not do something incredibly stupid himself. Like, kill Hojo, for example. Then again, the half-demon did not want to annoy Kagome, and he was intelligent enough to know that killing her boyfriend was an excellent way to annoy her, so he probably would not do anything. The voice observed the look of pure and utter hatred in InuYasha's eyes every time he looked at Hojo.

_Then again, better safe than sorry..._ It had been a several hours since Kagome had fallen asleep. Shippo was still curled up next to Kagome, although he had shifted from her neck to a position at her side, and Kagome had wrapped an arm around him. The voice did his equivalent of a smile.

_At least_ that_ worked out. Nothing's official, but it won't take them too long, once they wake up. Kagome's not going to give up her son, and Shippo's not going to give up his mother, without a fight. Knowing Hojo, he might just say something about Kagome being too young to be a mother. That would certainly get him into trouble. Especially if Rin shows up too. It's amusing that Hojo has no idea that Kagome practically has two children. He'd be horrified if he knew that his girlfriend is a mother of two. Hmmmm... is there a convenient way for Hojo to find out about that? I could check with the mental voice that's been dealing with Sesshomaru, pestering him to formally adopt Rin. Maybe they're in the area... _

"...She's been out too long! We should dump water on her!" The voice did his demonic smile equivalent again.

_Ahhh, the stupid git's acting stupid faster than I imagined possible. Brilliant. This will make my work _much_ easier..._ The voice glanced at Sango and Miroku. They had gotten closer together since Miroku had put an arm around Sango, due to Sango's disgust and to be quite frank, their hidden fondness for each other. They were keeping their mouths shut, and not warning Hojo at just how dangerous suggesting interrupting Kagome's sleep around InuYasha was. The voice did its equivalent of a smirk.

_It's amusing how the idiot has no idea just how deep a hole he's digging for himself..._

"Are you _insane_? Kagome needs to sleep! She'll wake up when she's ready!"

"This is the second time she's been out like this today! It could mean that she's really sick! We need to see if she's in a coma! The only way I know of to do that is to dump water on her. Even if you don't care about her, I do!"

_Oh, shit._ The voice thought, knowing that Hojo had just said the one thing guaranteed to make InuYasha snap._ I can't stop InuYasha from killing Hojo _this _fast! This could seriously mess up my plans! _

"Don't you EVER say I don't care about Kagome." InuYasha said in a voice that positively rang with fury. The voice noticed that InuYasha's hands were clenched into fists, and that if InuYasha did not watch what he was doing, his claws would start drawing his own blood. The voice was impressed with InuYasha's Hojo ignored him, and started to reach for a bucket by the door, which just happened to be filled with water. The voice did its smile equivalent again; it loved happy coincidences. The door to the hut banged open, and the familiar voice of a certain wolf-demon rang throughout the room, making the voice get a warm, fuzzy feeling.

_Someone else for Hojo to annoy. Perfect. Absolutely perfect._

-- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This chapter was fun. It is entirely from the point of view of the absolutely AMAZING voice. Sort of how he feels about this whole mess.

Hojo is going to get into SOOOOO much trouble next chapter...


	16. Chapter 16

Yeah... InuYasha, Kagome, and crew belong to Rumiko Takahashi, not the poor teenager who wrote this. She wishes she did. The poor teenager who wrote this owns the voice, though, so on balance she guesses she's happy.

-- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the viewer, the arrival of Kouga startled Hojo while he had a firm grip on the bucket of water.

"Hey Kagome! It's good to-" Hojo recoiled in shock, sending a fountain of water cascading over Kouga.

Needless to say Kouga was not happy. Not happy at all. He glared fiercely at Hojo.

"Stupid human! What was that for?" Hojo's jaw dropped, and he could not stammer out a reply. This enraged Kouga further. "ANSWER ME!!" Hojo briefly looked to Sango and Miroku for support. Sango had started shuddering every time he looked at her, which made Miroku glare at him. Neither was going to help him. Finally, in desperation, he glanced at InuYasha, only to encounter a smirk. He was perfectly happy to let Hojo annoy someone else who could rip him to shreds. Although, he had to admit, he _would_ like to do a little bit of damage to Kagome's boyfriend himself before letting anyone else at him...

_But just think!_ The voice pointed out slyly _If you let Kouga kill him, then Kagome can't blame you for anything. It would be entirely his fault, which would get rid of him too! _InuYasha's smirk widened. He had not thought of that particular aspect, and it had not really been an option until just now, but it was perfect!

Just as InuYasha was reaching this happy conclusion, Kouga caught Kagome's scent. Which was partially covered by Hojo's.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY WOMAN?" Kouga yelled, infuriated. Hojo then did the stupidest thing he could have done, probably because he was sick and tired of this stupid place where no one seemed to think he was good enough for Kagome, or anyone for that matter, and in which it seemed like half the male population seemed to think that Kagome was theirs, from the little fox brat to this new guy.

"I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO _MY_ GIRLFRIEND!" He yelled back. Kouga's eyes narrowed to slits.

"What was that?" He said in a rather deadly tone. Hojo either did not understand the implications of Kouga's tone, or was extremely stupid in his next choice of words.

"I _said_" he snapped, "That I didn't do anything to my girlfriend. You know, Kagome? The girl I'm going out with?" Kouga growled

"First you dump water on me, then you refuse to answer me, and now you steal my woman? You're even worse than mutt-face over there!" InuYasha was not certain if that had been intended as a compliment towards himself, or an insult towards Hojo, although he was more than willing to bet on the latter. Then, Kouga finally caught sight of Kagome, lying on her mat in the center of the room, and his eyes flashed. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY KAGOME?" Hojo once again showed his stupidity by yelling

"SHE'S NOT YOURS!" For once, InuYasha was keeping his mouth shut about that, thinking that it was an excellent idea to let Hojo do all the Kouga irritating for the afternoon.

_That's an excellent idea, InuYasha!_ The voice agreed fervently, thinking that this might be the only way to keep InuYasha out of trouble. _You could even make him madder by telling him what happened... and that Hojo wasn't there to protect her._ InuYasha rather liked that idea, and he did so.

"Kagome went to find Shippo after battling some spider-demons. Some sort of blob demon had gotten a hold of him, no idea how, and she used too much of her spiritual energy getting Shippo away from him, and maintaining a barrier around the two of them while Miroku and Sango held the thing off until I got there." InuYasha supplied calmly, then glared at Hojo. "Meanwhile, this useless idiot stayed here, still in shock that Kagome actually has a temper and would protect her kit no matter what." Kouga was a little surprised at first at the half-demon's ready aide, then shook with fury that the mere human who called himself Kagome's boyfriend had not been there to protect her. He made his decision.

The human needed to die. As in now. Kouga growled.

"Well, human, you made a big mistake, coming after my woman, and then dumping water on me. You've made me look less honorable, and I will _not_ let that stand." Sango's eyes widened, and Miroku winced slightly. Both understood exactly Kouga had planned. Neither was really too upset about it, as neither cared too much about Hojo. Miroku began running through a mental list of prayers for the dead, trying to find one for annoying, pathetic, irritating, lecherous cowards. Sango was wondering if she could watch. She would pay good money to watch Hojo try to fight a demon. It would be very amusing, she was certain. The only way it could be better was if Hojo had managed to annoy Sesshomaru.

Now _that_ would be entertaining.

About that time, Kouga picked Hojo up by the front of his shirt, and drew his fist back to punch the living daylights out of him. InuYasha stopped him, earning himself a glare. InuYasha smirked, and replied to the look of fury directed to him.

"Keh. I don't care if you kill him, just don't do it in here. You'd wake up Kagome, and she needs to sleep." Kouga nodded brusquely, and dragged Hojo out the door. InuYasha stared after them for a few minutes. Then he glanced sideways at Sango and Miroku (who still had his arm around Sango), got to his feet and followed, muttering something about "making sure that wimpy 

wolf did the job properly" Once he left, Sango could not help giggling slightly, anymore than Miroku could help grinning.

"Where's Inu...Yasha?" A sleepy voice asked from the floor. Kagome had awoken, and was now starting to sit up. Her dark brown eyes took in the scene around her, and then froze on Miroku and Sango, or, more specifically, Miroku's arm around Sango. As soon as they realized this, the two jerked apart as if the other was white hot iron. Sango immediately began babbling about Hojo staring at her and Miroku soon began adding what he hoped were clarifying comments.

_No. No they're not._ The voice informed him wryly. _In fact, they're making things worse..._

The look of baffled confusion on Kagome's face grew until the voice intervened.

_Allow me to translate: Hojo started staring at Sango, and it made her really uncomfortable, not only because he's your boyfriend, but also because she likes Miroku. Miroku noticed, and when Sango started edging towards him, hoping that Hojo would get the message and keep his eyes to himself, Miroku put his arm around her. This would be because Sango is_ his _woman, and he does not appreciate it when people fringe on his territory, or when people make her upset. They've been sitting like that for slightly over half an hour._ Comprehension dawned on Kagome's face.

_Ohhhhhh, ok. That I understand. Much less confusing than babbling._ She turned to Miroku and Sango.

"So, Hojo was staring at you, Sango, which made everyone uncomfortable, so Miroku put his arm around you to send an unspoken message to keep his eyes to himself?" The two nodded fervently. "Alright. That makes sense. Now, the next time I see him, I'm going to have to explain to Hojo just what happens to boyfriends who can't keep their eyes to themselves." The smile that formed on her lips gave Sango the chills, purely because she was positive she had seen it before... on InuYasha's face, just before destroying someone who had irritated him. Sango did not think that this would be a good day for Hojo. Not a good day at all.

"Mommy!" Shippo had just woken up, and catapulted himself into Kagome's arms, then froze. He realized that he had never gotten Kagome's approval of that name. Kagome laughed, and snuggled him close.

"Yes, I'm up Shippo. Is there something wrong?" She asked when she noticed he was not moving. Shippo looked at her with really big, slightly frightened eyes.

"Is it ok if I call you Mommy?" He asked very quietly, hoping Kagome would not reject him. Instead she laughed.

"Of course it's alright if you call me Mommy! I'm happy that you want to!" She cuddled him closer, and Shippo smiled brightly and yelled.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" At the top of his lungs, making Kagome laugh again. Then she stopped again, looking around the room.

"Where are InuYasha and Hojo?" Sango and Miroku glanced at each other, simultaneously hearing the voice point out something to them

_You know, it would be very stupid to enlighten Kagome about the presence of Kouga, and Hojo's eminent destruction. It might make her do something she'd later regret... like letting Hojo get out of here alive, for example..._ Neither of them wanted _that_ to happen.

"Ahhh, well, you see..." Miroku began slowly, searching for a good explanation, knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to find one. Kagome's eyes narrowed to slits.

"InuYasha's doing something stupid, probably involving doing something rather messy and extremely permanent to Hojo, isn't he?" She asked bluntly. Sango and Miroku looked at each other and shrugged, silently fuming along with the voice.

_Why did she have to be so bloody perceptive, dang it?_ All three asked themselves. Miroku then decided to do some damage control for InuYasha.

"Well... I don't think InuYasha was planning on doing the extremely permanent part himself... Kouga was planning on doing that. InuYasha might actually be keeping Kouga from killing him..." _so he could kill Hojo himself later._ Miroku added silently. Kagome started muttering under her breath, and scooped up her bow and quiver from its place by the wall. Shippo leaped onto her shoulder, and asked in a very meek voice.

"Mommy... is InuYasha in trouble?"

"Either he's in trouble" Kagome informed him through clenched teeth "Or he's going to be." Shippo gulped, and clung to his mother's neck with grim determination as she ran out the door to find the various targets of her annoyance.

_Excuse me._ The voice rang in Miroku, Sango, and Shippo's heads, _I've got to go do some damage control. Don't let her kill anyone._ There was a slight pause before it added _Except Hojo. It's ok if she kills Hojo. Or Kouga. In fact, killing either of them is encouraged._

-- - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- - -- --

Finally, an opportunity to infect Miroku with the voice! YES!!

The line "Either he's in trouble, or he's going to be." is stolen from The Incredibles. I was thrilled to be able to use that line...


	17. Chapter 17

Do I sound like I could have come up with InuYasha? No. If it were me, there would probably be some form, shape, or fashion of vampire in it, other than that creepy moth demon in the anime... (Yes, I'm a bit vampire obsessed. I blame it on Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse which started this weird fascination. And Vampire Knight. And now Trinity Blood. Yes, I know it's a bit sad and pathetic. Get used to it.)

-- - -- - - -- -- - -- - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- -- - - - -- - -- -- - - - -- -- - - - - - -

Rin, the ward of the demon Lord Sesshomaru was picking flowers with Ah-Uhn near the old well where she and her companions were camped. She had no idea why they were here, but Lord Sesshomaru had said that Lady Kagome and her companions were in the nearby village, and Rin was delighted at the prospect of seeing her again. Even though the child did not see her very often, and generally when she did, it was in the midst of a battle between Lord Sesshomaru, and his half-brother, Lady Kagome's companion InuYasha, Rin adored Lady Kagome. She was like her mother. Sometimes, she liked to daydream that Lady Kagome really was her mother, and that she traveled with Rin, Jaken, Ah-Uhn, and Lord Sesshomaru, but she knew that would never happen. It did not take a grown-up to see that Lady Kagome loved InuYasha, and she would not leave him for anything. So, Rin just had to be content with small visits here and there, and talking to Lady Kagome during skirmishes between Rin's father and Lady Kagome's love. Rin sighed. Things were so complicated in her family. All the same, she figured that Lord Sesshomaru would give her permission to go to the village to visit Lady Kagome that night, and she wanted to take her some flowers, which explained why she was in the woods with Ah-Uhn, under Master Jaken's watchful eyes. Rin smiled, and started dancing around the glade. Tonight, her entire family was going to be together, from her mother, Lady Kagome, to her father, Lord Sesshomaru, to her brothers, Shippo and Master Jaken, to her aunt, the demon-slayer Sango. This was a rare treat, and Rin intended to make the most of it.

Kouga had taken Hojo outside the village to get to the somewhat messy business of killing him. Hojo was wild eyed, and getting more panicked by the second. Fortunately for him, his panic was inhibiting his speech capacity, so he was not babbling at Kouga, which certainly would have sped up his impending doom. However, that would not last long. A little after they started, InuYasha joined them. Kouga glared at him.

"Get out of here, mutt-face. I don't need your help!" InuYasha rolled his eyes.

"Keh. Relax, stupid wolf. I'm just here to make sure Kagome doesn't find out." Kouga blinked.

"Okaaaay... whatever, just stay away from him, he's MY kill." Hojo gulped visibly. InuYasha's smile turned absolutely evil as he looked at Hojo's obvious discomfort.

_Even if I'm not the one killing him, this_ will _be entertaining._ Then Hojo started babbling.

"Why do you guys hate me so much? I mean, sure Kagome's my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean you have to _kill_ me or anything. I mean, people are civilized human beings now, 

right?" His voice cracked slightly on the last bit. Kouga and InuYasha glanced at each other for a moment, both thinking that this was a pathetic waste of life, even for a _human_. Kouga grinned in a way that did not comfort Hojo in the slightest.

"Does it help any that I'm _not_ a human?" He asked with a grin, flexing his fingers. Hojo went white.

"Yo-you're not?" He stammered. Kouga and InuYasha grinned. This was certainly amusing.

"No, I'm not. And neither is mutt-face over there." Hojo's eyes flashed to InuYasha, who was now sitting on a rock, hands tucked into his sleeves, with a grin that hinted at his demonic heritage. "I'm a demon." Kouga continued. "A wolf demon, to be precise. And dog turd over there is half dog demon. So, you should just accept defeat now, and make your death a lot easier on me, because I'd rather not have to chase you down. I could, of course, but it would be a waste of my time." InuYasha resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

_More like your shikon shards could chase him down. Damn, he thinks a lot of himself... _

_Of course he does. He's the alpha male of a demon wolf tribe._ The voice reminded him wryly. _I thought you might like to know, Kagome woke up, and she's feeling fine. She asked about you, and, well... let's just say she put the pieces together and is on her way here with Kirara and Shippo._ InuYasha started cursing mentally. That was the one thing he did _not_ want to happen. _Exactly._ The voice agreed. _On the bright side, she _is_ annoyed with Hojo. Sango told her about how he was staring at her earlier. Now, if we could just get him to say something negative about Shippo in her presence... or Rin, maybe... _

_Rin? The little kid that runs around with Sesshomaru?_ InuYasha asked, startled. The voice sighed, and did its equivalent of rolling its eyes.

_Yes, Rin. The little girl Kagome is extremely fond of._ The voice said in exasperated tones. Then its tone changed. _Oh, no..._ It did not take any time for InuYasha to realize what the voice was referring to. Kouga had let go of Hojo, preparing to punch him in the face, and Hojo had used his last remaining intelligence to do the only sensible thing to do: He ran. He was surprisingly fast for a human; InuYasha figured that it had something to do with the fact that he knew death would be on his heels. With a sigh, he and Kouga started chasing after him.

Hojo might not have been the sharpest tack in the box, but he was intelligent enough to figure out that running for his life at the first opportunity was good idea. So he did. He ran blindly through the woods, barely noticing that he was relatively close to the well he had followed Kagome through. Then, suddenly, he ran into something. He pushed it over without stopping, desperate to get away. He heard someone scream, and then froze.

Rin had been picking flowers by the path, still making a pretty bouquet for Lady Kagome. Then someone ran into her, which certainly hurt, but not nearly as much as when the person practically threw her out of the way, and sent her crashing into a tree. Rin screamed in pain as she felt something in her arm snap, and began to cry. The boy- she could see the person who ran into her was a boy- kept running. He looked vaguely panicky, like he was running away from something. Then he stopped suddenly. Rin looked up and saw Lord Sesshomaru standing in front of him, his eyes dispassionate, although Rin thought she saw flickers of red around them, a sure sign that he was angry. Rin tried unsteadily to get to her feet, but jostled her arm, sending a burst of pain through her, making her yelp. Lord Sesshomaru looked over at her.

"Did this human hurt you, Rin?" The boy's face paled as Rin nodded. Lord Sesshomaru turned to him, the red flicker in his eyes a tad bit more pronounced. He drew his sword, and the boy's eyes went wide, and he (wisely in Rin's opinion) took a step back. Lord Sesshomaru glanced at the trees just behind the boy, and Rin followed his gaze. Two people ran out from the trees, their eyes fixed on Hojo. Rin recognized both of them. One was Lord Sesshomaru's half-brother, InuYasha, and the other was the wolf-demon Kouga. She was still a little scared of him; after all, he _had_ killed her, but much less so than she had been before Lady Kagome explained to her that Kouga was not killing humans anymore. They were a bit startled to see Sesshomaru with his sword drawn. Kouga just stared at Sesshomaru, his jaw slack, but InuYasha's eyes traveled around the clearing, searching for something. His eyes met hers, and he smiled. Rin realized that InuYasha had assumed that the only reason Lord Sesshomaru would draw a sword on the boy was because of Rin. Rin was not certain if that was true, but in this case, he was right, and she hoped he did not try to stop Lord Sesshomaru. She had a feeling that he would not make it out alive if he tried.

"Sesshomaru!" InuYasha yelled. Lord Sesshomaru glanced at him.

"Little brother. He harmed Rin. He is mine." Lord Sesshomaru said flatly. Hojo gulped.

"HEY!!" Kouga yelled. Then InuYasha leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. Kouga clenched his fists, then relaxed. Then he smiled in a rather malicious way.

Once InuYasha had seen Sesshomaru with his sword drawn on Hojo, he had realized that Hojo must have been an idiot and hurt Rin. He looked around for the kid, and saw her huddled under a tree, cradling her left arm, which he was pretty sure was broken.

"Sesshomaru!" He yelled, figuring he at least needed to keep up appearances. He did not care if Sesshomaru killed Hojo, but then again, he _had_ been looking for a way to get rid of Kouga...

"Little brother. He harmed Rin. He is mine." Sesshomaru informed InuYasha in his flat emotionless tone.

"HEY!!"

_Don't be choosy. Kagome won't blame you at all if Sesshomaru kills him for hurting Rin. If Hojo doesn't watch it, she'll come after him herself. You should be a good person, and inform Kouga that Kagome can't blame either of you if Sesshomaru kills him. If you stop Kouga from killing Hojo, you could get some points with Kagome._ InuYasha leaned over to Kouga and muttered

"Shut it. If _he_ kills Hojo, Kagome can't blame either of us for it!" Kouga did not seem to happy about this, but then relaxed, even smiling maliciously at Hojo. InuYasha caught a very familiar scent coming from the trees behind him.

_Ohhhhh shit..._

Kagome had gone about five feet from Kaede's house when she was joined by Kirara. The cat-demon blinked, transformed, and nuzzled Kagome's side.

"Are you telling me to ride?" Kagome asked dryly. The cat demon meowed, and Kagome got on, with Shippo still clinging to her neck. "Try to find them in a hurry?" Kagome asked Kirara tentatively, and Kirara nodded, and took off. It took her a while, but Kirara eventually got to the point where Shippo started to be able to scent them. Suddenly, he frowned and sniffed again. Then he turned to Kagome.

"Mommy, Rin's there! Rin's near Kouga, Hojo, and InuYasha, and so's Sesshomaru. She smells funny, like there's something wrong!" Kagome's eyes widened.

"Kirara, can you go any faster?" Kagome asked worriedly. Kirara shook her head, and Kagome bit her lip.

"Mommy, what're we gonna do?" Shippo asked her with wide eyes.

"We're going to help your sister." Shippo nodded, immediately understanding that she meant Rin. After all, to him, Rin was as much Kagome's child as he was.

Kirara leaped through a grove of trees, landing neatly behind the half demon who was turned to look at her, looking extremely nervous. Idly, she noticed that they were very close to the well. She glanced around, and saw Rin, huddled under a tree, holding her left arm, with tears streaking down her face. Her eyes narrowed slits.

"What. Happened. To Rin." Kouga, Sesshomaru, and Hojo jumped. Hojo shifted uneasily, and Sesshomaru refocused on Hojo.

_Hojo was running from Kouga, and he ran into Rin. He wanted her out of the way, so he shoved her out of the way, and into the tree._ The voice supplied angelically. Kagome's eyes promised murder as they slid onto Hojo.

"Did YOU hurt her?" She hissed at him. Kouga and InuYasha slowly backed away from her. Even Sesshomaru felt a bit unease at the look on her face. What little color Hojo had retained from being threatened by Sesshomaru drained away. He nodded very slowly, sensing that it would be a _very_ bad idea to lie. Kagome took a step forward, eyes flashing. Hojo took a step backwards, and Sesshomaru carefully moved out of her line of fire. Kouga and InuYasha were looking extremely uneasy. Likewise, Kirara was a bit nervous, maintaining her larger form. In fact, the only two people who were completely at ease were Shippo and Rin, who actually felt a bit safer around their mother's fury. They understood that their mother was reacting to a threat to them, and would not harm them. Hesitantly, Hojo began to talk.

"It was an accident?" Kagome's hands moved like lightening. One flicked to her quiver, and the other brought up her bow. Within a moment, her arrow was knocked, and aimed straight at Hojo's heart.

"It is generally considered a VERY bad idea to hurt your girlfriend's daughter, just like it's considered a bad idea to stare at her best friend while she's lying unconscious. Apparently, you never learned that lesson. So, let me help you. We're _through_. I can't believe I was ever stupid enough to date an idiot like you! If you EVER come anywhere near me, OR my children, again, I WILL inflict pain. Got it?" Kagome snarled. At her words, something that never happened occurred.

Sesshomaru smiled. It was a very disturbing smile, one that was not at all pleasant. InuYasha noticed, and it made his blood run cold. Sesshomaru's smile was directed at him.

_Why the Hell is he smiling?_ InuYasha thought, vaguely panicked, and seriously disturbed. The voice snickered.

_Because Sesshomaru realized something. If Rin is his daughter, and Kagome is Rin's mother, what does that make Kagome?_ InuYasha choked. He did _not_ want to have to think about competing with his older brother for Kagome. _Don't worry. He's not interested, other than as a way to mock you. Be prepared for a lot of that._ InuYasha felt like banging his head repeatedly against a tree. He was doomed.

Hojo looked a bit stunned at Kagome's announcement, then he tried to approach her, a quiet plea in his eyes.

"Come on, Kagome! You've been acting weird ever since we both got here! Let me take you home and we can talk about this." It was then that Hojo made his mistake. He took a step towards Kagome and Shippo.

"What did I say about coming near me and my children?" She hissed, and pulled back on the string of her bow. Sesshomaru darted forward, scooped up Rin, and took her to safety- _behind_ Kagome. Hojo realized just how very toast he was, remembering Kagome's perfect aim from gym class. Kagome pulled her arrow back. Hojo laughed nervously, backing away from Kagome, hands raised.

"You wouldn't actually shoot me, would you Kagome? I mean... come on!" Kagome turned to InuYasha with a frightening smile on her face.

"InuYasha, how much do you know about sealing spells?"

_Ooooo, that's a nice idea, Kagome. Too bad it wouldn't work. Still... it _would_ have been amusing to see Hojo bound to the God tree._ The voice said with appreciation and real regret.

"Keh. Enough to know that they only work if the person being sealed has demon blood." InuYasha answered. He was in complete agreement with the voice. It would have been _extremely_ amusing to see Hojo bound to the tree where he had been sealed for fifty years. Kagome shrugged.

"Well... dang. There goes the only solution that was pain-free, Hojo." She took aim again, and Hojo gulped. He started backing away from her slowly.

"Kagome, I think you need to calm down... just relax..." Kagome smiled sweetly. InuYasha recognized the smile as the one she wore occasionally when she was angriest with him. At first he had thought it meant she was not angry with him after all, and that he was perfectly safe. It had not taken him long to figure out that he was dead wrong. That sweet smile generally proceeded the hardest sits Kagome could give him. InuYasha grinned.

Hojo was doomed.

-- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Soooooo... This chapter is insanely long. There wasn't really a good place to split it up, so yeah... it's insane.

I finally got to put in Rin! So happy! I had to do it, 'cause Rin is ADORABLE!!  
Sorry. Crazy squealing moment over.  
And of course, I must admit that I DID want to get Hojo on the bad side of Sesshomaru. I mean, his torture just wouldn't be complete without Sesshomaru's hatred!

I also got to use Kirara a bit! Loves Kirara! Hugs her Kirara plushie to her cheek The only thing I don't like about this story is I end up not using her as much as I'd like... Oh, well. C'est la vie.


	18. Chapter 18

I have no claims on anyone in our happy family. Rumiko Takahashi does, though, and deserves much love for her creativity. I do own the plot of 'Losing Kagome', though, and the voice. I will be very annoyed if anyone else takes them without permission. So don't.

-- - - - - - - -- -- - -- - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - -- - - -- - -- - -

"Sure I'll calm down..." Kagome said sweetly. Hojo smiled, and took a step toward her, away from the Bone-Eater's Well behind him. Kagome's smile turned to ice. "Just after I get rid of you!" She hissed, and shot. She had not been aiming to kill. Her plan was to pin him to the well, and give Sesshomaru her full permission to maul him for hurting Rin. Unfortunately, she miscalculated.

Instead of pinning Hojo to the well, the arrow knocked him backwards into the well, slamming his head into the wooden frame on his way down. Hojo fell unconscious the second his head hit. The small group of people stared at the well as bluish light flared, signaling that the time slip had activated. Kagome sighed, and brushed her hair out of her face tiredly, and walked over to Rin and Sesshomaru. Rin squealed with delight, and hugged her frantically, with her right arm.

"Thank you, Mo- Rin means, Lady Kagome!" She said, beaming up at her. Kagome smiled back as Shippo slid from her neck to get to Rin's level.

"You know, you could call her Mommy. She lets me call her that now, and she says you're my sister." Shippo told Rin conversationally, and the little girl's eyes went wide.

"Really? Rin can call you Mommy, Lady Kagome?" She asked in awe. Kagome laughed.

"Of course! I said you were my daughter, didn't I?" The next second, Kagome found herself tackled by Rin, who was careful not to jostle her arm. Shippo watched for a moment, then yelled.

"Hey! Rin doesn't get to have all the fun!" And aided his sister in tackling their mother, who just kept laughing.

"Rin." The cool voice of Sesshomaru broke into the family moment, and Rin got up off Kagome, and walked to the demon lord with her smile still on her face.

"Lord Sesshomaru, if Rin can call Lady Kagome 'Mommy', does that mean Rin can call you 'Daddy'?" Stunned silence filled the clearing. InuYasha silently prepared to go save his Kagome's daughter if his brother was not happy about this question.

_He won't be unhappy, you idiot. Sesshomaru_ adores _Rin. If anyone freaks out, it will be that stupid toad-thingy! And thinking of her as _your_ Kagome, are you?_ The voice asked in a sugar sweet tone.

_Yes, I am. Got a problem with that?_ InuYasha snapped at it.

_Not at all. You might want to talk to Kagome about that before saying she's yours in public. She REALLY doesn't appreciate it when people make life-altering choices for her..._ InuYasha shuddered, remembering what Kagome had done to him when he tried to block the well. _Exactly. She isn't too happy when Kouga calls her that either. _

Sesshomaru was in shock after Rin's question. He had never thought that this human girl would ask to call him her father.

_You know you want to._ Said a mental voice, one totally different from the one that had been hounding Kagome, InuYasha, and crew. This one had been hanging around Sesshomaru, Rin, and Jaken for a few months, edging towards this moment. _You know you want to say yes, if only to give yourself an excuse to protect her. Besides, if you say yes, you can use it to torment InuYasha..._ That settled it.

"Yes, Rin. You may call this Sesshomaru 'Daddy', if you wish." Rin smile was positively angelic, as she hugged her father with her good arm. Very hesitantly, Sesshomaru hugged her back. Kagome resisted the urge to squeal at the cuteness of the long overdue family moment. InuYasha's jaw dropped, not absolutely certain that this was happening. Meanwhile, Kouga was slowly processing something he remembered from the first time he had found out Sesshomaru had a human girl traveling with him. He had vaguely remembered her scent from somewhere, like he had smelled her before. He kept his face blank as he tried to remember where he had smelled her before. InuYasha noticed the difference.

_What's wrong with him?_ He asked his voice. The voice snickered.

_He's trying to remember where he first smelled Rin's scent. Wonder how he'll react when he realizes that it was when he let his wolves decimate the village where you met him? _

_You mean it was Kouga who killed Rin?_ InuYasha asked, a bit stunned.

_Well, a group of his wolves, but he holds responsibility for turning them loose. Let's hope Sesshomaru decides to kill him, shall we? _

_Nah, if Sesshomaru hasn't killed him by now, he's going to let him live. Kagome might, except she's too nice. I think... _

_You think?! When did this happen? The voice mocked. InuYasha resisted the urge to growl. _

_A long time ago. Anyway, AS I WAS SAYING, I think we need to get Ayame down here. Kagome will probably side with her, especially if someone lets slip that it was Kouga that killed Rin..._ The voice cackled with glee.

_Brilliant, InuYasha! And what do you know, Ayame is not too far away, chasing after a certain wolf-demon! She should be here by this evening. I'll make sure Kagome hears about Rin. Don't you worry. _

_I wasn't gonna! InuYasha protested. _

_Riiight. _

Now the happy family moment was interrupted by Rin looking up at Sesshomaru and saying quietly.

"Daddy? My arm hurts..." Sesshomaru inwardly cursed himself.

"Of course, Rin. InuYasha, Kagome," Kagome jumped slightly. Sesshomaru had always called her 'girl' or 'miko', but never by her name. InuYasha sighed mentally.

_Let the mockery begin._ The voice agreed.

"Rin needs someone to set her arm." Sesshomaru stated coolly. Kagome nodded.

"I'm afraid I don't know how to do that. We'll need to take Rin to the village so my mentor, Kaede, can help her." Sesshomaru nodded once, his eyes blank. "If you'd like," Kagome continued slowly, choosing her words with care, "I could take Rin to see her myself, and bring her back to you when Kaede has set her arm. We know you don't like most humans..." Sesshomaru shook his head.

"No. This Sesshomaru will take her." Kagome nodded.

"Alright, then. Follow me..." Slowly, Kagome walked over to Kirara, who had conveniently placed herself next to InuYasha. Once the miko was standing with her kit next to the cat demon, InuYasha gently picked her up and set her on Kirara's back, followed by Shippo. She beamed at him. "Thank you, InuYasha."

"Keh." InuYasha replied, tucking his hands into his sleeves and choosing to suppress his elation that she was smiling at him. Or rather, that she was smiling a smile that did not promise death or a sitting.

"Kouga? I suppose you're welcome to stay for a while... but there's not really any more room at Kaede's, and we'll be staying here for a bit." Kagome informed the wolf-demon, hoping he would take the hint for once and _go away. _

_This is Kouga we're talking about. The idiot who killed Rin?_ The voice pointed out dryly. Kagome sighed internally. She had forgotten about that. It just confirmed her belief that she would _never_ marry Kouga. She could never marry someone who had harmed her child, even unintentionally.

Kaede was a little startled by her patient's stony eyed father and the fact that the child was calling her student 'Mommy', but she quickly set Rin's arm, and gave her firm instructions 

regarding what she was and was not allowed to do while her arm is in her cast. Something told the old priestess that between her demon lord father and her miko mother, Rin would be forced to follow her orders.

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru was having a great deal of evil amusement tormenting InuYasha, and unintentionally Kouga, by hanging around Kagome. It had not taken long for Kagome to figure out what was going on, and she spent the afternoon suppressing giggles at the looks on InuYasha and Kouga's faces as Sesshomaru sat next to her, or stood behind her while she was holding Rin, looking like a menacing mate protecting his wife and child. This also amused Sango and Miroku. The monk developed a tendency to sit beside InuYasha and Kouga during one of these episodes, and sigh loudly, stating that Kagome and Sesshomaru made such a lovely couple, with two such beautiful children. More than once, Sango, Kirara, or Shippo had to come and save his neck from the infuriated demon and half-demon.

Around sunset, Kagome and Sango began making dinner, with Rin following them around like a puppy, wanting to help however she could. They were serving bowls to everyone when Kouga stiffened. InuYasha concealed a grin: Kouga had caught the scent of a red headed female wolf demon.

"What's wrong, Kouga?" Kagome asked, curious.

"Uhhhh..." Kouga did not really have an answer.

"Keh. He can smell Ayame. She's just outside the village." InuYasha supplied, hiding his glee.

Kagome smiled.

"That's nice. I hope she comes to see us. We haven't heard from her in a while." Kouga shuddered.

"_I_ don't." Unfortunately, it was a little too late for Kouga. Someone knocked on the door. Shippo opened it to reveal a red-haired female wolf demon, flanked by two white wolves.

"Oh, hi Ayame!" He said cheerfully. Kouga glared stonily at her, as she smiled back.

"Hello Shippo. Can I speak to Kouga?" Shippo nodded

"Sure! Oh Kooooooougaaaaaa!" He called, and received a growl in response. Ayame's eyes narrowed to slits, and her fists clenched.

"KOUGA!" Kouga stared at Ayame, vaguely stunned. He had seen a look resembling the glare on Ayame's face earlier that day... when Kagome had found out that Hojo had hurt Rin. He did not _think_ that Ayame could make not doing as she wished as painful as Kagome could, but it would probably be safer not to find out.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" Kouga and Ayame stepped outside for a moment. Everyone inside the house stayed absolutely silent, the humans straining to hear the conversation, the demons and half demon courteously staying quiet for their benefit, as they could hear the conversation loud and clear. It was Ayame's typical pitch to get Kouga to go with her to the Northern Mountains so they could be mated. Kouga, as usual refused.

Generally, this would have been the end of it; Kouga would continue following Kagome, and Ayame would follow him for a while, hoping to change his mind, but eventually going back to her grandfather. This time, it was different.

"Kouga..." Ayame said, sounding like someone preparing to follow orders. "My grandfather told me that I HAD to bring you back, this time. Our pack is suffering, and we need you to come help us. To be quite frank, your pack isn't doing too well either. This is the only way he sees us all surviving..."

"Damn it, Ayame, I don't care! I'm sorry if you get in trouble with the Elder, but I won't leave Kagome! You really aught to do what YOU want for a change, not what the Elder wants." Ayame's eyes flashed.

"THIS_ IS_ WHAT I WANT!" She screamed at him.

Back in the house, everyone jumped. Sesshomaru, InuYasha, and Shippo covered their ears and Kirara yowled, wincing in pain at the high pitch of Ayame's shriek. The humans were alarmed by the sudden clarity of Ayame's voice.

Ayame was furious. She knew Kouga loved Kagome. She was not happy about that, but she could accept it, especially because she knew Kagome did not love him back. She also knew that Kouga was refusing to do what was best for all of them. That was what really infuriated her. How could Kouga be a leader if he did not do what was best for his people? She sighed to herself. It did not really matter to her. She needed Kouga, both because she loved him, and her grandfather had instructed her to get him. There was only one possible solution for this. She slowly picked up a heavy rock from the ground next to her.

"Kouga, I'm sorry." And she threw it, not giving Kouga time to react. It connected solidly with his skull, knocking him unconscious. Very calmly, she turned to her entourage of wolves. "Make sure he doesn't wake up. I need to ask Kagome something." They nodded, and she reentered the house, smiling sweetly, to the stares of five humans, a half-demon, and four full demons. Ayame blushed, guessing that the demons had informed the humans what had happened outside. "Uhhhh.. Kagome? Do you have anything I could use to keep Kouga asleep until we get back to the Northern Mountains?" Kagome and Kaede glanced at each other, and got to their feet.

"Well, yes. We do. But... you do realize he's going to be furious with you once you get there, right?" Kagome asked as Kaede gathered some herbs, and began grinding them into a powder.

"Of course I do. It's pretty obvious. But once my wolves and I get him to the Northern Mountains, my grandfather will deal with him. Believe me, NO ONE gets on his bad side. It's just safer that way." Kagome smiled.

"If you're sure..." She went over to a shelf, and picked up a small pouch with a small spoon inside it, which she handed to Kaede. The old miko smiled at her protégée in thanks, and poured the powdered herbs into it. Kagome took it, and fastened it tightly shut. Then she handed it to Ayame. "Here. It doesn't take a lot to work on a human, in fact, we would only brush a bit under someone's nose and let them inhale it, but it's going to take a lot more to knock out a demon. I suggest mixing about a spoonful of herbs with a cup of water, and making him drink it. One dose _should_ knock him out for about eight hours." Kagome then did something impulsive. She quickly hugged the female demon, and whispered "Good luck." Ayame was startled, but smiled.

"Thanks. Dealing with Kouga, I'm going to need it!" Ayame flew out the door, and enlisted the help of her wolves to drag Kouga off.

After Kouga was out of the picture, the atmosphere lightened a bit. Rin and Shippo played together under the watchful eyes of their mother and Sesshomaru, and Shippo showed off some of his fox illusions to his little sister. Rin adored his tricks, especially his top. Eventually, though, Kagome announced that it was time for them to go to bed. The two children grumbled, but snuggled together in Kagome's sleeping bag, and fell asleep pretty quickly. Kagome watched them fondly for a few moments, then got to her feet.

"Oy, Kagome, where are you going?" InuYasha asked as she collected her bow and quiver.

"Just out for a bit." She said vaguely. "I'll be back in about an hour." She left.

I hope you realize she's going to the well. The voice told InuYasha sweetly. InuYasha swore mentally, and got to his feet. Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow.

"Keh. She'll probably get herself killed. I better go make sure she doesn't do something stupid." InuYasha followed Kagome into the night.

He found her sitting on the edge of the well, getting ready to slide down into it. She looked up as she heard him approach, and smiled as she saw him.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come after me." She said wryly.

"Keh. What made you think that I would? I don't always come after you!" InuYasha snapped, knowing as he said it that he was lying.

_Of course you're lying, you idiot. You promised her that you would always protect her, and you can't really do that if you don't follow her_. The voice informed him tiredly, as if he could not believe he was having to remind InuYasha of this _again_. Kagome laughed.

"You do, and you know it. It's alright, I don't mind. I won't be gone long this time- probably less than a day. I just need to make sure Hojo-" InuYasha could not believe that Kagome wanted to see that stupid idiot she had been dating. He had thought she was past it, and something in him snapped.

"No." He snarled. Kagome, who had been turning towards the well stopped. Then she slowly turned her head to meet his eyes. InuYasha nearly backed down when he saw the anger in them.

"What was that?" She asked in a low, icy cold, slow voice. InuYasha's eyes locked with hers, his anger matching hers.

"You heard me. No. I won't let you go back to that idiot boyfriend of yours."

"Wha-" Kagome said, startled.

"I don't care if you sit me into oblivion, I'm _not_ going to back down on this!"

"InuYasha, I-" Kagome tried to interject.

"I'm not going to let you-"

"INUYASHA, SIT!!" Kagome screamed, sick of trying to get a word in edgewise. InuYasha sat.

"Why, you..." He snarled.

"Save it InuYasha. Let me talk for a second, instead of trying to second guess what I'm going to say!" Kagome snapped. InuYasha shut up. Kagome smiled. "Alright. First of all, I was _trying_ to say that I needed to go see if Hojo was going to talk, or if he even remembers this. He _did_ take a nasty blow to the head. Second... DON'T YOU _EVER_ TRY TO TELL ME I CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN!!" InuYasha gulped, and nodded. Kagome smiled sweetly. "Good. Now, one more thing... Why would you care if I _did_ go back to Hojo? I mean, you're in love with Kikyo!"

_Now might be a good time to let her know about the fact that you love her, and not Kikyo..._ The voice observed sagely.

_You think?_ InuYasha replied snidely. Then he took a deep breath, and asked softly

"Why do you think I'm in love with that clay pot?" Kagome froze.

"What did you- did you just- huh?" She started in a jumble, extremely confused, and feeling a surge of hope go through her. InuYasha smirked.

"Why would I love a pile of dried mud when I have a real, beautiful, breathing girl, who is actually, you know, _alive_ right in front of me?"

_And who can actually produce children? The voice added innocently. _

_Shut it._ InuYasha snapped, conveniently forgetting that he had thought the same thing. Suddenly, InuYasha felt two arms being flung around his middle. He looked down to see Kagome hugging him frantically. With a smile, he hugged her back. Kagome mumbled something into his chest, and he looked down at her.

"What was that?" Kagome looked up at him and smiled, tears of happiness streaming down her face.

"I said 'I love you too.'" she explained, blushing slightly. InuYasha smiled back, and kissed her.

_My work here is done._ The voice said, ringing in their heads with positive glee. _Try not to miss me _too_ much. I'll be back before you know it! _

_Why does that scare me? Kagome and InuYasha asked it dryly. _

_So, this is the thanks I get for getting you two together? Ungrateful ingrates!_ The voice departed, leaving dark muttering in its wake. Kagome shook her head to clear it, then smiled up sadly at InuYasha.

"Unfortunately, I still have to go see about Hojo. I'll be back as soon as I can, alright? If I'm lucky, I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon." InuYasha sighed, and nodded.

"If you're not back by tomorrow, I will go get you, got that?" Kagome laughed and nodded. She leapt nimbly into the well, and vanished in a blaze of blue light.

Hours earlier, Hojo had woken up with a start on the ground of a dirt lined pit, and a splitting headache.

_What the-_ he wondered, and began to climb out of the hole. When he got out, he found himself in a small wooden hut. It was vaguely familiar. As quickly as he could, he ran outside, and found himself at_ Higurashi's place? What the heck am I doing here? I know I like her, but it's not like I'm dating her or anything..._. Hojo shook his head, and started to walk home.

The next day at school, Hojo was surprised to see Higurashi, who looked a bit sick, walking with her friends.

"Hey Higurashi!" Hojo said cheerfully, regretting that he did not have something to give her. Higurashi looked a bit startled, and her friends looked downright stunned. One of them was even slack jawed. Then Higurashi smiled, and said cheerfully.

"Hi Hojo! How are you?"

"I'm fine, you?" Hojo asked eagerly. Her smile faltered.

"Oh, not so well. My doctor says my blood work came in showing that I have an acute case of anemia, so I'm not allowed to do much. I have to leave after lunch, actually." Hojo sighed. So much for asking her out, then.

"Well, get better, ok?" He said lamely. Kagome smiled.

"I'll do my best. See you around!" Higurashi turned, and started to walk to her next class, followed by her friends.

"Gee, Kagome, you weren't kidding when you said he hit his head!" One of her friends said, sounding shocked.

"Yeah, I think he has amnesia!"

"Aren't you going to tell him that you're his girlfriend?"

"I don't know... Things were getting a little... off for the two of us. Besides, I don't think he even realizes that he's forgotten anything. I don't want to look like I'm telling a lie."

"But you wouldn't be!"

"I know... but all the same, I don't think I will." Kagome said with a smile. "C'mon, let's get to class."

Kagome raced home after lunch, said a quick goodbye to her mother and grandfather (Souta was still at school), grabbed some medical supplies and ramen, and was down the well without a backwards glance.

InuYasha, Shippo, and Rin were waiting by the well for Kagome to come back. Rin was a little awed that her mother could travel to a different time, and wanted confirmation that it was true, despite the fact that both InuYasha and Shippo had warned her that it might be a while.

Around noon, a flash of blue light shown from the well, signaling Kagome's return. It took her a moment to climb out, but once she did, she was mobbed by two children, both of whom were yelling "Mommy!" at the top of their lungs. She laughed and hugged them, and then looked at InuYasha with a smile.

Her half-demon was hanging back, waiting for the children to finish their greetings, with a smile as he watched his miko being a mother. As he watched her, he felt something in him relax. Kagome walked over to him, and hugged him.

"You came back." He murmured into her hair, hugging her back. Kagome nodded.

"I always will." She said softly.

"AHHHH!! Mommy and InuYasha are being mushy!!" Shippo screamed in fear. Rin also looked vaguely disturbed, as she traded looks with her brother.

"RUN FOR IT!!" They screamed in unison, and followed their own advice. Kagome and InuYasha laughed.

"What do you want to bet Rin tells Sesshomaru, and Shippo tells Sango and Miroku?" Kagome said wryly.

"Keh. There's a chance they won't?" InuYasha replied. Kagome laughed, tucking her hand into his, and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"We may as well go try to do damage control with Miroku's perverted mind." She said, tugging on his hand, leading him back to their friends.

-- - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - -- -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -

Awwwwww... happiness. So many loose ends tied up, families gotten together, Hojo gotten rid of, InuYasha made fun of, Ayame with Kouga... So wonderful...  
And there's another voice! Doesn't that just strike fear into your heart?


	19. Epilogue

I do not, have not, and never will own InuYasha. I would love to, who wouldn't? But alas, it is not meant to be, and I must instead rely on my brains to pay for my college education. Oh, well.

-- -- - - -- -- - - - - - - -- - - -- -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -

_10 years later_

"Daddy!" A little boy yelled as he ran to Hojo. Hojo picked him up, laughing.

"Hey, Toki!" He said. "What have you been up to today?" Toki whispered in his father's ear.

"I went to Kyoya's house today, and we thought it would be fun to go play in the bottom of this well that's behind his house. So we did. But when we tried to get out, we weren't at the shrine anymore... I met some really cool people. I'm going back tomorrow, but my friends' mommy said I had to have your permission first. So..." Toki gave Hojo the puppy dog eyes. "Can I go?" Hojo could not resist the puppy eyes. He sighed.

"Well... I'd like to meet these people before I let you go anywhere." Toki beamed.

"Ok! You can go with me tomorrow!"

The next day, Hojo found himself dragged to the Higurashi shrine. He remembered how often he had hung out around here when he was younger, trying to attract Kagome's attention. He still had this reaction, even though he had been bringing Toki here to play with Kagome's nephew, Kyoya, for years now. Toki pulled on his hand to get him to go into a small house behind the shrine. Inside, there was a well, and Hojo had a nagging feeling that he had seen it before.

"Come on, Daddy!" Toki said, leading the way to the well. Toki leapt in, and Hojo followed, not really seeing another course of action. He fell through blue light and stars, only to land at the bottom of the well again, though it was slightly different now. Toki began clambering out, and Hojo followed suit. As soon as they were out, Toki cupped his hands to his mouth.

"HEY!! IZAYOI!!" He yelled.

"You don't _have_ to shout, you know. I'm right here." A girl's voice said calmly from above their heads. Hojo looked up startled. A little girl sat on a tree branch, dressed in an old fashioned kimono. Hojo's eyes immediately went to her hair, which was black streaked with silver, and pulled back into a tight ponytail, revealing two small silver and black dog ears.

_Dog ears? No I must be seeing things..._ Hojo did a double take. Sure enough, there were two dog ears on top of her head. Nimbly, she stood up on the branch, grinned, showing two sharp 

white fangs, and jumped nearly ten feet to the ground, landing neatly in front of Hojo and Toki. She crossed her arms, tucking her hands into her sleeves.

"You're late." She informed Toki, then turned to Hojo. "Yes, I have dog ears. Yes, they're real. No, you can't touch them. I hate it when people do that. My family's the only ones who are allowed anywhere near 'em." She cooly answered all of the questions Hojo had been wanting to ask, completely unruffled. Toki grinned.

"No I'm not! I had to bring my daddy with me. Do you think your parents will mind?" The girl tilted her head to the side, inspecting Hojo with unblinking golden eyes. Then she shrugged.

"I dunno. Mommy probably won't, but Daddy might, if he gets annoyed with him." She turned, and smiled at Hojo. "My name's Izayoi. Who're you?" Hojo stared at her for a moment, stunned at the girl's sudden change of tact.

"I'm Hojo." Izayoi nodded.

"C'mon. Let's go to my house. Sissy and Brother are waiting for us!" Toki nodded, and the two children walked off leaving Hojo to follow along behind them.

Their destination was a small house on the edge of a village, where two teenagers, one boy, one girl, sat on the steps leading to the house's entrance. Both stood when they saw Toki and Izayoi coming towards them.

"Hey Iza. Hi Toki." The boy said with a grin.

"Hi!" They chorused. The girl, meanwhile, took a good look at Hojo... and her brow furrowed.

"Shippo..." She said suddenly, attracting the boy's attention.

"Yeah? What is it Rin?" He asked, looking at her with concern.

"That man... he seems familiar..." She murmured. Shippo looked up, and locked eyes with Hojo. His eyes widened, and he whispered something to Rin urgently. Her eyes also widened, and she stared at Hojo, with a touch of what might have been pity in her eyes.

"You better hope Rin's father doesn't see you..." She informed him. Hojo looked back at her, with total confusion in his face.

"Wha-"

"Never mind." Rin said, rolling her eyes, and turned to go inside. Izayoi and Toki darted into the house ahead of her, nearly tripping her. She laughed, and followed them in side. Shippo turned to Hojo and jerked his head towards the door.

"Come on. You'll want to talk to my parents, right?" Hojo nodded, and followed the boy into the house. He saw a young woman sitting in the middle of the room with her hair covering her face, grinding herbs with a mortar and pestle. Izayoi pounced on her.

"Mommy, Mommy! Guess what!" She said happily. The woman laughed. Hojo froze as she brushed her hair out of her face to deal with her daughter. He knew that face. He had sighed over it, once its owner vanished after high school.

"I don't know, Iza, what is it?"

"Toki brought his daddy with him!" The woman looked up, and saw Hojo. Her jaw dropped.

"Hojo?" She said uncertainly.

"Higurashi?" Hojo replied, slightly stunned.

"That's who he smells like." Shippo confirmed. "I remember. Shall we try to hustle him back down the well before Dad and Uncle Sesshomaru get back?"

"Try to hustle who down the well before Sesshomaru and I get back?" A rough voice asked from the entrance to the house. Everyone turned to the door, to see two men standing there, one dressed in red, the other in flowing white, both with long silver hair, like the streaks running through Izayoi's hair. The man red, who'd spoken, also had Izayoi's dog ears, and judging from the fact that Izayoi tried to tackle him, much like she'd pounced on Kagome, Hojo guessed that this must be her father. Meanwhile, the other man, Sesshomaru, Hojo guessed, had entered, gotten behind Kagome, and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head against her shoulder. Hojo watched this display with confusion, while everyone else, with the exception of Izayoi's father, grinned. Izayoi's father looked over her head, as she had attached herself to his waist, and growled slightly at Sesshomaru, who smirked at him, but let go of Kagome, walking over to Rin, who beamed up at him, and said

"Rin is so happy to see you, Dad!" Now Hojo was really confused. If this Rin was Izayoi's sister, InuYasha should be her father, right? Not Sesshomaru, but then again, Sesshomaru was very friendly with Kagome... Suddenly, Izayoi's father growled again.

"What is _he_ doing here?" Kagome, Shippo, and Rin exchanged uneasy looks.

"Dear, this is Toki's father. He came to meet the parents of his son's new friends." Kagome explained, walking over to him, and resting a hand lightly on his shoulder. He glared at Hojo. Kagome sighed, as if she knew something was going to be very, very bad.

Kagome had been stunned when Izayoi entered the house, leading not only her new friend Toki, but his father as well. Unfortunately, she knew Toki's father all too well. Shippo's confirmation that this was indeed Hojo did not comfort her in the slightest. Not only would his presence put 

InuYasha's over-protective, jealous tendencies into high gear, but it would also mean that he registered on Sesshomaru's list of people to be exterminated. While she had no problem with Sesshomaru visiting Rin, who had been living with Kagome and InuYasha for about three years now, Kagome had no desire for him to eliminate people in front of the children, especially not when one of them was the prospective eliminee's son. As a result, Kagome would have supported Shippo's plan to dump Hojo back down the well in a hurry, if InuYasha and Sesshomaru had not chosen that instant to come back to the house after hunting, and leaving the kills with Sango and Miroku.

At first, both brothers were a little too distracted to notice Hojo's presence. Izayoi had gotten to the point where she could actually slam InuYasha to the ground with her overenthusiastic greetings if he was not careful, so he was occupied with standing upright, and Sesshomaru immediately went to wrap his arms around her, enacting the usual "Let's mock InuYasha, because Kagome is the mother of my daughter" plot. As usual, it got a growl out of InuYasha, and barely concealed laughter from everyone else. Sesshomaru decided to be kind, unlike many other times when he had decided to stay near Kagome, Rin, and Shippo, acting like a father figure to the children, and a bit like a mate towards Kagome, for hours until InuYasha's eyes started to turn red and Kagome broke off the act and went to calm him down. He went to go speak with Rin, who greeted him with the same sunny smile and words she always did.

"Rin is so happy to see you, Dad!" Confusion clouded Hojo's face. Kagome sighed, figuring that she would have to give a very long explanation about how Rin had adopted her parents on her own, one just so happening to be Kagome, one just so happening to be Sesshomaru, and that the two had never been remotely interested in each other in that way. Although, she had to admit, Sesshomaru hugging her all the time _would_ give Hojo the wrong impression, never mind that it was Sesshomaru's method of mocking InuYasha...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a growl from InuYasha

"What is _he_ doing here?" Kagome exchanged uneasy looks with her two older children. Her husband had noticed Hojo. She walked over to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to calm him down, and explained.

"Dear, this is Toki's father. He came to meet the parents of his son's new friends." She spoke softly, trying to soothe his temper. She had no desire for InuYasha's inner demon to come out today. It would be messy, and to be quite frank, she did not think that things would turn out well for Hojo. InuYasha looked at Hojo for a second, then turned puppy dog eyes onto Kagome, and murmured.

"Can I hurt him?" In a voice that was so eager, it was vaguely disturbing.

"No, dear. You can't. He doesn't remember anything, and he hasn't done anything to hurt the kids, or me, or anyone else. I explained this to you _years_ ago." Kagome informed him firmly. The similarity between this conversation, and ones she had had with Izayoi, when the child wanted to do something against the rules, struck her, and she resisted the urge to smile.

"Are you sure, Kagome?" InuYasha's puppy eyes bore into her, making Kagome thank God that she had managed to make herself immune to InuYasha's eyes years ago.

"Yes, InuYasha, I'm sure." She told him gently. She glanced over at Hojo, who had stiffened at the sound of InuYasha's name. Then his eyes traveled slowly to Sesshomaru, who had his arm around Rin. The color drained out of his face. Then in a flash, his eyes had moved back to InuYasha, and he yelled.

"Y-you! I remember you! And-" he glanced back at Sesshomaru, who was looking at Hojo with an expression that indicated a great deal of interest in the object of his focus, attention that no one in their right mind really wanted to receive, and what little color remained in Hojo's face vanished. "Ohhhhh shit..." He whispered. InuYasha's ears, which had gone flat against his head perked up, as he looked at Kagome, with hope in his eyes.

"See Kagome! He remembers! Now can I kill him?" Kagome groaned and covered her eyes with her hand.

-- -- - - - - -- - - - - - -

Aaaaaaaaaand... that's the story. The plot is over, finished, done. Kinda sad, really... I was depressed not to be able to incorporate the voice into the epilogue...

I chose the names of Izayoi, Toki, and even Kyoya, for various reasons. Izayoi is named after InuYasha's mother. I personally think he would name his daughter after her. Toki comes from the name of Hojo's ancestor, Akitoki. And Kyoya? Well, his name has absolutely nothing to do with InuYasha, and everything to do with the fact that I wanted to incorporate the name of one of the awesomest characters in Ouran High School Host Club, aka "The Shadow King". If you've seen it, you know who I'm talking about. If you haven't... go watch it!

I do have some amusing deleted scenes, which I shall not post here, because there are rules against posting bloopers, and I don't know if that applies to within the fanfic or for the show in general. I'd rather not find out by getting chewed out by the authorities…. You can find them at jellolids. deviantart. com/ art/ Losing-Kagome-Deleted-Scenes-77777628


	20. Deleted Scenes

I am a poor teenager who makes her money by babysitting children and writes stories for her amusement and to forestall boredom, not a rich wonderful manga writer/artist who writes InuYasha. I wish I was, but alas, it is not meant to be. In other words: InuYasha and gang aren't mine.  
But the voice is, and it pwns, so on balance, I guess I'm happy.

--- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- ---- ---- --- ---- ---

From a prologue that Roze010 and I came up with after we finished most of the rest of it.

*Kagome has seen InuYasha with Kikyo, causing her to go down the well, where she begins dating Hojo. This is Sango's response.*

"InuYasha, you BAKA!!!!" Sango screamed at InuYasha, fighting against Miroku's restricting arms as InuYasha just stared at her, wondering why the heck Sango was screaming at him and trying to kill him.

_I don't know, maybe because you just hurt her best friend, whom is like a little sister to her?_

A dry mental voice asked sarcastically. InuYasha ignored it.

"What is the _matter_ with you, Sango?" He asked incredulously. This time, Sango shoved her elbow into Miroku's gut, forcing him to let her go, and grabbed Hirakosu. InuYasha looked at it warily. "Sango?"

"Listen up, you stupid dog." Sango hissed. "I'm only going to say this once, got it?" InuYasha nodded, a little scared by this extremely mad version of Sango. Sango took a deep breath. "I know that you care about both Kagome and Kikyo, but I want you to get something straight: Kagome is ALIVE. AH-LIVE. As in breathing and in possession of her own soul. And she loves you more than anything. On the other hand, Kikyo is a DEAD. D-E-A-D. Dead, deceased, no longer breathing _or_ in possession of her own soul. Heck, she doesn't even have her original body! She's a frickin' CLAY POT! As in, _I_ could make her." Sango hesitated. "Well, except for the fact that I'm not a potter, and I wouldn't be able to make as good a copy as Urasue..."

_That's right. You definitely wouldn't be able to. Now I, I on the other hand, could most certainly make a beautiful copy of Kikyo, because I am absolutely amazing at everything._ The same voice said in Sango's head. Her eyes narrowed.

_Oh so modest, aren't you?_ She snarled at it.

_I am the epitome of modesty, my dear girl._ The voice told her sweetly. Sango gave up and went back to chastising InuYasha.

"But that's not the point! The point is, you're hurting someone who's alive and absolutely adores you for a pile of dried mud who hates your guts! Do you see the problem here, InuYasha?" Sango hefted Hirakosu as InuYasha just stared at her. Very cooly, she whacked InuYasha across the head with it, turned around, and walked off, silently fuming.

*Just after InuYasha has asked Kagome why he would love a pile of dried mud instead of the real girl infront of him*

"Did-did you just call Kikyo a clay pot.... and a pile of dried mud?" InuYasha grinned.

"Yep."

"I- uh- I.... Excuse me for a second, please?" Kagome stammered, then ran when InuYasha nodded his head, looking confused. After she had gone a ways away, she squealed with glee, jumped up and down and yelled "HE FINALLY ADMITTED IT!!!!!!" Then she ran back to InuYasha. The half-demon was smirking slightly. His superior hearing had picked up her squeals of glee, and her words.

*Sometime between the end of chapter 19 and the epilogue, before Izayoi is born. Note that this takes place in the Feudal Era, after Kagome has permanently taken up residence there with InuYasha.*

Kagome was sitting on the porch of her house, watching Shippo sneak around, trying to play a prank on InuYasha. As usual, InuYasha was one step ahead of Shippo. He always seemed to know where Shippo was going to lay a trap for him, and managing to dodge it at the last minute. Kagome sighed with contentment. Suddenly, InuYasha froze, as did Shippo. They sniffed, then InuYasha turned to Kagome.

"We're going to have company..." He told her, irritation evident in his tone. Kagome smiled slightly. There were only two people guaranteed to make InuYasha angry like this: Kouga and Sesshomaru. Considering the fact that Ayame had sent Ginta and Hakakku to Kagome with a message that she had just given birth to set of twin pups, Kagome did not believe that it was Kouga coming to see them. So, that meant that Sesshomaru and Rin were coming to visit. She smiled slightly.

This was going to be fun.

"Mommy!" Rin squealed a few minutes later, once she and Sesshomaru had arrived. Kagome laughed, and hugged her daughter. Shippo pounced on his little sister.

"Hey Sis!" Rin laughed gleefully, and the two of them started a game of chase. Meanwhile, Sesshomaru placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder, and smiled down at her, an evil gleam in his eyes.

"Hello, Kagome." Kagome choked back giggles at the total evil in Sesshomaru's expression. Mentally, she began counting to see how long it would take before InuYasha started to lose control. She smiled.

"Hello, Sesshomaru. I see you and Rin have been doing well. Where are Jaken and Ah-Un?" She asked sweetly, noticing the slight twitching of anger in InuYasha's form.

"Jaken is waiting outside the village. He refuses to come anywhere near a human residence. Ah-Un is ensuring that he does not do anything stupid." Sesshomaru's arm went around Kagome's shoulders, making InuYasha growl slightly. Sesshomaru smirked in reply, and Kagome resorted to covering up her giggles with her hand. By now, Rin and Shipp were also choking back laughter. Then, the evil light in Sesshomaru's light spread to Rin's, and she walked up to her parents, with a look of such innocence and sweetness, it was hard not to see a halo above her adorable features.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Kagome and Sesshomaru looked down at her, pretending not to notice the increased volume of InuYasha's growling.

"Yes, Rin?" Kagome asked, resisting the urge to ruin all their work by falling to the ground, laughing hysterically. The evil glint in Rin's eyes assured her mother that she knew exactly what she was going to say next.

"Rin would like a baby sister or brother to play with." A strangled howl of fury escaped from InuYasha, as his eyes turned crimson. Kagome blushed profusely, her face a color similar to InuYasha's eyes. Still, she was quite proud of Rin for coming up with her line. Kagome had always known she was brilliant.

Then she calmly walked over to her mate to reassure him that she had no intentions of leaving him for his brother, and keep him from killing everyone in sight.

*After Kagome's hidden her eyes in her hand when InuYasha's asked permission to kill Hojo again*

"Mommy" Izayoi asked, confused, worming her way in between her parents, "Is Daddy trying to do something stupid again?" Sesshomaru choked, concealing his laughter, Shippo suddenly caught a rather suspicious coughing fit, and Rin giggled, burying her face in her father's robe to try to conceal it.

"Yes, Izayoi. Daddy's trying to do something silly." Kagome said with a smile.

"Well, why don't you just make him sit?" She asked innocently. Kagome sighed.

"Because, Daddy actually has a good reason why he would want to do something silly this time." Kagome sighed. "I suppose I could let him, as long as he beats your uncle to it...."

"Hey, Mom, can I get a blast of fox fire in before you let them have him?" Shippo asked with a vaguely disturbing eagerness. Kagome and Izayoi stared at him.

"You've been spending too much time with Daddy, Brother..." Izayoi said slowly, a little scared. Kagome nodded slightly.

"Hey! This is the idiot who subjected me to hours of lecturing about why candy was bad for my teeth, even when I told him that I didn't need to worry about it! I want revenge!" He yelled. Rin nodded.

"If Rin was a demon, she would want to do something to him too! He broke Rin's arm, and she still isn't happy about that. Shippo can have Rin's hit, if he wants." Shippo, InuYasha, and Sesshomaru looked pleadingly at Kagome.

_You really ought to let them, you know. You didn't let InuYasha and Sesshomaru have Kouga, so they are very eager to pick off someone...._ The voice informed her, very eager to get rid of Hojo once and for all.

_I know they are, but what about Toki, hmmm? What'll happen to him if Hojo's killed?_ Kagome countered.

_You adopt him too._ The voice answered promptly. Kagome almost buried her head in her hands.

"Does everyone but me want to kill him?" She asked the air.

"Yes." Rin, Shippo, Sesshomaru, and InuYasha chorused, and the voice answered her question in her head.

_Most definitely. Oh, and Sango, Kaede, and Miroku would be interested in getting a few swipes in as well... And Kouga.... _

Kagome began banging her head against the wall of the house.

--- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- -- ---- ---- ---- ----- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- -----

Well, I changed my mind about uploading my deleted scenes. No idea why, really. I hope everyone enjoys them! This is all you'll be getting from _Losing Kagome._ Then again, it _is _ more than you were originally getting….

-jellolids


End file.
